Speedster siblings
by EyesOnly-with-wifi
Summary: What if Barry had a younger sister who was also struck by that lightning? With two speedsters running around, Central City's sure in for some exciting times.
1. Chapter 1

"You know Barry, only you would insist on going to your lab in the middle of a storm," said his sister.

"I already told you, I want to add this clipping to my evidence from the night of Mom's murder," sighed Barry.

"And I already told you, I don't mind so long as you buy me fries."

Barry smiled, and switched on the television. The news reporter was talking about some disaster at S.T.A.R. labs. "Hey, have you heard anything about S.T.A.R. labs lately?" he asked his sister.

"Not since they switched on that Accelerator thingy," she replied, frowning at the screen.

"Never mind. I'll look into it tomorrow," said Barry, turning back to his noticeboard and pinning up the article. The siblings stood for a minute, remembering.

 _"Mom!" screamed the young girl as her older brother tried to pull her out of the room. "No, Barry, I want mom!"_

 _"Sophie, go with your brother," said Henry, looking in horror at the red and yellow lightning surrounding his wife._

 _Suddenly Barry and Sophie were out on the street, still wearing their pajamas with no idea how they got there._

"People are now trying to shut down the Particle Accelerator," said the reporter on screen, and the two siblings looked at each other in horror. Barry squatted down to get a closer look at the screen when he felt his sister tap his arm. She was looking out of the window, speechless. The television switched itself off and he followed his sister's eyes to a huge fiery explosion engulf S.T.A.R. labs. Some sort of wave made its way towards them switching off every piece of electricity in its midst. Barry ran to the back of the room and started pulling at a chain, and Sophie ran over to him, nearly tripping as the ground shook. The mysterious concoctions on the shelves began floating, just like the water in their fish tank on the night of Nora Allen's murder.

"We haven't got time for that!" she shouted, grabbing his hand and trying to pull him to safety – just as the lightning struck.

The glass roof shattered and a massive bold of lightning sent them both flying across the rooms into the shelves of chemicals.

"Barry," gasped Joe. "He told me he was going to his lab." He ran the entire way there and was greeted by the sight of his two adopted children lying unconscious on the floor. He knelt and put two fingers on each of their wrists, then pulled out his phone."Hello, 911? I need an ambulance. Two people have been struck by lightning. They don't have a pulse."

When the ambulance arrived Joe was distraught. "Excuse me, sir? What are their names? Do they have any family?" asked the paramedic.

"Barry Henry Allen and Sophie Sarah Allen. Their dad is in prison. I'm their adoptive father," he managed to say.

Iris, Joe thought. I have to call her.

"Dad?"

"Hey baby, I don't know exactly how to phrase this but.."

"Is everything ok?" Iris asked worriedly.

"Not exactly."

"Is it something to do with that Accelerator Barry loves that blew up?"

"Yes and no. Barry and Sophie, oh God, Barry and Sophie have been struck by lightning."

"Oh my God. Are they alright? They're not dead are they?" Joe could hear Iris crying on the other end.

"No. Not at the moment. I've called an ambulance, but they're in a pretty bad state. They've been taken to the hospital."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Iris hung up and threw her phone at the wall. Her brother and sister, struck by lightning. Aside from Joe, all they had was each other. She felt numb. Before she had even registered what she was doing, she was in the car driving to the hospital. Iris might have been crying, but she wasn't sure. Just – Barry and Sophie. Please let them be ok.

"What happened to them?" asked a doctor as the Allen siblings were rushed into the operating theatre.

"They were struck me lighting, holding hands," explained a medic.

"How are they still alive?" asked another. They were preparing to shock them when Iris West burst in.

"Miss, you can't be in here," said a nurse calmly, holding Iris back.

"I'm family," she screamed. "Barry! Sophie!"

 **AN: this ended up being a bit more emotional than I intended it. Anyway, this was requested by Sarahcobbler and superflashfan, hope you like. Further chapters hopefully up soon. Let me know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

Gasping, Sophie woke up. The room was unfamiliar and she was wired to several mysterious machines. Half way between a hospital and a lab, the room was littered with high-tech computers and screens. Where am I? What happened? thought Sophie. There was the storm, then the lightning and Barry. "Barry!" she shouted, half out of fright and half out of some actual hope he could hear her.

"You're awake!" exclaimed a young man walking into the lab. He had shoulder-length hair, was wearing a hoodie and had a tablet in one hand and a stick of liquorice in the other. "I'm Cisco Ramon. Welcome to S.T.A.R. labs."

"Sophie Allen. You mean _the_ S.T.A.R. labs? My brother loves you guys, he's a geek like that. He was struck by the lightning too. Do you know where he is? Is he ok?" demanded Sophie.

"One sec," he spoke into his tablet, "Caitlin, the girl is awake." He turned back to Sophie. "Sorry. Yes, _the_ S.T.A.R. labs, but sadly we lost that reputation when we nuked the city."

"You did WHAT?"

"You remember a storm?" Sophie nodded. "Yeah, we caused that when the Accelerator blew up. Slight mishap caused total destruction."

A young woman briskly walked in and began tapping buttons on her tablet. When she leaned over Sophie to check some piece of machinery, you young girl caught sight of the date on her tablet. "September 2014?! How long was I out?"

"9 months," Caitlin replied without looking up from the machine. The two scientists quickly stood back when an older man in a wheelchair entered.

"Dr Wells," said Caitlin. "Her blood pressure and everything seems normal."

He nodded, then looked at Sophie. "My name is Harrison Wells. How are you feeling?" he asked gently.

"Pretty good, but kinda distressed to learn I've been out for 9 months," replied Sophie.

"We'll fill you in on what you missed. But first, can I do anything for you? Caitlin and Cisco will make sure you're healthy then we can discharge you," said Dr Wells.

Only one thing had been on Sophie's mind for that entire conversation. "I want to see my brother."

"Of course." Dr Wells led her through a mass of corridors past a crater of charred ground. She gasped but said nothing. Eventually they reached a room almost identical to her own, and in the centre was a bed with her brother on it. She automatically ran to his side, Dr Wells hanging back to give them some privacy, and she took his hand with tears streaming down her face.

"Barry, I'm here. Please wake up, I need you," she whispered. He didn't stir. Eventually, she stepped away. "What now?" she asked Dr Wells. "I don't want to leave Barry."

He pulled a phone out of somewhere and offered it to her. "You can call Det. West," he said.

Sophie took the phone and dialled her foster dad's number from memory.

"Hello?"

"It's me, Joe. I'm awake," said Sophie, fighting tears just from hearing his voice.

"Sophie?! Oh my word! Are you ok?"

"A little shaken, but all good. Barry's not awake yet, but I want to stay with him."

"You do know he might not…never mind. I'll call Iris."

"Can you send her here?" asked Sophie. Joe agreed and hung up. Sophie stood still for a second then burst into floods of tears. "I never asked for this, I want everything to be like it was," she sobbed. To her great surprise, Dr Wells took her in his arms.

"I know it's undesirable, but this will all get better," he whispered. "This must be difficult for a girl of…"

"14," whispered Sophie.

"14 years of age."

He pulled away and handed her a tissue. Something somewhere beeped, and Dr Wells spoke into his tablet, telling Cisco to let Iris in.

As soon as she saw Sophie, Iris squashed her in a huge hug. "I'm so happy you're alright. Everything is so bleak without you and Barry."

"I know. I think he'll wake up soon," said Sophie, fingers crossed. What Dr Wells had said kept running through her mind – _this will all get better –_ she certainly hoped it would.

"Miss West," said Dr Wells, turning his chair to face her, "happy as I am to see you and Miss Allen's reunion, we still have a lot of test to do on her to make sure she is in full health."

"Of course," smiled Iris. "I'd better get back to work anyway. I'm so happy you're awake." They hugged again and Iris left.

Caitlin came in, carrying her tablet and a cup of coffee. "I just need to do an MRI on Sophie, then we – " she walked into a table, sending her tablet and coffee flying in opposite directions. In a flash of purple lightning, Sophie neatly caught them both and handed them back to Caitlin. "Oh my days," breathed the scientist.

"This is an interesting development," muttered Dr Wells.

 **AN - huge thanks to everybody who faved, followed and commented. Next chapter should be up soon :)**


	3. Chapter 3

"Whoa! Did you see-" began Cisco, but Dr Wells cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"May I have a minute with Miss Allen?" he asked, in a very un-question-like way. Caitlin and Cisco quickly evacuated. Sophie vibrated her hand and watched the purple lightning flicker over it. "What do you think?" he asked gently.

"I like it. But I want Barry to wake up," Sophie said, her voice emotionless.

Dr Wells took off his glasses. "I think it's best if you get some sleep. This has probably been very difficult for you."

Sophie nodded, but didn't seem convinced.

"How about if you spend the night at my house? I have plenty of room, and it's not too far from here. Caitlin will call us if Barry wakes up," offered Dr Wells.

Sophie took him up on the offer, and he drove her there.

"This is a nice place," she gasped, admiring the marble floor, huge fireplace and just about everything else.

"Would you like a drink?" asked Dr Wells, pouring himself a whiskey. She nodded, and he gave her a glass of water. "I have some work I need to do." Dr Wells left Sophie curled up under a blanket at one end of his spacious leather sofa staring at America's Funniest Home Videos and chewing a nail. A little while later she went to bed in one of the guest bedrooms which looked like nobody had ever slept in it, even though it was immaculate.

Sophie emerged just after nine, her hair a mess and yesterday's clothes crumpled.

"Pancake?" offered Dr Wells, passing her a plate. He took in her appearance, "don't you have anything else to wear?"

Sophie gestured to her lack of bags, "where was I going to keep it?"

Dr Wells smirked. Smiling, Sophie ate her pancake. It was surprisingly good.

"I can ring Caitlin and ask if she has anything for you to wear, if you want?" he asked. But before either of them could do anything, the Doctor Who theme tune began to play and Sophie dug her phone out of her pocket.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Cisco. I need you two at S.T.A.R. labs, like now." The phone beeped, signalling Cisco had hung up. She turned to Dr Wells. "Cisco needs us at S.T.A.R. labs."

"Car. Now." Ordered Dr Wells, grabbing his keys and wheeling out of the house.

Caitlin met them outside the lab, and showed them a video on her tablet. There was a man stood before about 30 marionettes dressed in an old cape stood on top of an office building. He raised his arms and the marionettes stood upright. "This is live feed from a repurposed satellite," explained Caitlin.

"Citizens of Central City, get ready for some entertainment!" shouted the man on the video.

"We don't have long," said Caitlin, leading them inside. "Cisco and I stayed up all night getting this ready for you." She threw what appeared to be a pile of fabric at Sophie. She unfolded it to discover a turquoise suit made of some sort of polyester-type material. It was a full-length catsuit, with a small skirt over the bottom half. In the middle of the chest was a logo with a bolt of lightning on it, and a smaller version on either ear.

"It's resistant to friction, so shouldn't set on fire when you use your superspeed. Also, extremely comfortable," said Cisco.

"How did you –" began Sophie, but Caitlin cut her off.

"Dr Wells had a suspicion, and he's usually right." She beamed the picture from her tablet onto one of the TV screens. "We'll be able to talk to you through the speakers on your suit, and there's a mic so you can speak to us."

Caitlin motioned for Cisco to take over the explanation. "We don't know what the Puppeteer is going to do," began Cisco, "but chances are it's something bad. That's where you come in."

Sophie fiddled with the suit. "But what do I do?"

Dr Wells turned his chair to face her. "Run. You run, and you don't look back until all the people are safe."

"Ok." Sophie ducked into a nearby room to change into the suit before running to the office building. She could feel the lightning behind her, pushing her forwards. Dr Wells gave her instructions through the speaker on her suit and bit by bit the marionettes on the rooftop disappeared in a flash of purple. "That's all of them. What do I do?"

"Don't try and defeat the Puppeteer, we don't know what he can do!" protested Cisco.

"Everybody has their limits," said Dr Wells. He grabbed the mic off Cisco. "Sophie, here's what you're going to do. Try and take the Puppeteer – yes Cisco, it's a good one – back to the Pipeline but for pity's sake be careful!"

Dr Wells took off his glasses and stared at the screen.

"That's…not good," said Cisco, when the Puppetter brandished a gun. He fired, but Sophie quickly moved out of the way, and the bullet just grazed her on the arm.

"Sophie, get out of there! Get out of there now!" shouted Dr Wells. A couple of seconds later, she appeared next to him. "Good work," he congratulated her.

"I couldn't have done it without your help. Thank you," she said. They both smiled.

"Cisco," Dr Wells called over his shoulder, "have you thought of a name for her yet?"

 **AN - Thank you to everybody who faved, followed and reviewed. Thanks to highlander348 for the suggestions. In answer to True Flash Fan 1's question, there is about 10 years between Sophie and Barry as Sophie is 14 and Barry is 25.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Drum roll please," said Cisco. Grudgingly, Caitlin tapped the desk. "I name her…Dash."

Sophie clapped, "I love it!" Cisco grinned.

Dr Wells turned his wheelchair towards the computer. "I think now would be a good time for Sophie to capture the Puppeteer." He tapped the tablet on his wheelchair and beamed a news report onto the TV screens around the room.

"On it." Sophie got ready to run but Caitlin stopped her.

"Wait. We made a few adjustments to your suit." Caitlin handed the younger girl a domino mask the same colour as her suit and an earpiece with a lightning bolt on. "We thought these might work better than the hood."

Sophie changed into her normal clothes to allow Caitlin and Cisco to make the adjustments.

"Much better," declared Cisco when she put it back on. "There's only so much you can do fuelled by Red Bull. It gives you wings, it doesn't give you inspiration."

Sophie looked at her reflection in the TV screen and put on the mask and earpiece. "I'm ready."

…..

The Puppeteer was stood once again on the top of a building, but this time without his army. He had a single puppet, the size of a person. Sophie sped up the building and heard Caitlin's voice in her ear, "There is a roof door coming up you can hide behind." She slid behind said door and waited until she was sure the Puppeteer wasn't looking. She then raced out and injected him with a sedative.

"Got him," she said into her mic. The sound of a helicopter approached and Cisco dropped down on a ladder.

"Good work," he congratulated, loading the unconscious man and puppet into the helicopter. "You're walking back."

Sophie rolled her eyes and headed back to S.T.A.R. labs.

…..

"Sophie, there's a mugging at Jitters," said Dr Wells. Sophie ran towards the coffee shop and saw they had Iris as a hostage. I have to make sure she doesn't see me, thought Sophie. She activated her speed to give herself more thinking time and the world slowed. She made a decision, but it was risky. She ran by the mugger and grabbed Iris's purse out of his hands. In one swift move she pulled Iris out of his grasp and dragged him behind the counter.

"Call 911!" she yelled into the mic. "I'll hold him here to make sure nobody gets hurt." He pulled out a gun and pointed it at her. Not good. Sophie rolled out of the way and a spray of bullets thudded into the wall behind her. Using superspeed she wrestled it out of his hands and threw it away. He tried to punch her but she grabbed his hand and held it still. Sirens approached, making the mugger tense. "Finally," sighed Sophie.

…..

"What do I do?" Sophie asked into the mic. Seven people tied up, each with a bomb and one person with fire powers.

"The bombs are motion censored, one wrong move could have disastrous consequences, "said Cisco.

"So I make the right move. What is it?"

Caitlin sighed. "You have to move faster than you've ever done before. Get everybody out of there before a single bomb goes off. We don't even know if you can move that fast!"

Sophie did a quick calculation. It didn't look good. "Can I diffuse the bombs?"

Cisco gave her instructions as she worked. Success. Now for the fire guy.

"He's very dangerous," warned Dr Wells.

"I got this." Sophie pulled him out of the room into the hallway. "You don't have to do this." The air around them began to heat up. "I, however, have to do this." She punched him in the face.

…..

Prison break. Easy to get in, not so easy to get out. The woman picked the lock on the cell door and just as Sophie was about to grab her, she moved out of the way and locked her in instead. "Rude!" said Sophie. The woman ran out of sight just as Sophie placed her hands on the bars of the cell and shook them until they smashed. "Guys, which way? So you have a floor plan or something?" Dr Wells gave her directions and, when she caught up with the escapee she tackled them to the floor and shouted for the warden.

"Thank you for your help, Miss…" faltered the guard.

"Dash. Just doing my duty." She smiled, and vanished in a flash of purple lightning.

Once Sophie was safely away, she relaxed. "Guys, I did it." No reply. "Hello, are you there?"

"…Sophie…" said Cisco. That didn't bode well.

"What is it?"

"It's Barry. He's awake."

 **AN - sorry for the wait, I've been absolutely swamped with stuff. Huge thanks to everyone who reviewed. In answer to Guest's question, I wasn't planning on a love interest for Sophie but if that would be something you would be interested in seeing let me know. Thank you for reading! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

"BARRY!" Sophie knocked her older brother over with the force of her hug.

"Careful, he's just been in a coma for nine months," cautioned Caitlin.

"Believe me, I know," sighed Sophie. "So, if I remember rightly, you owe me fries Barry."

"You shouldn't leave yet, we still have to run tests-" began Caitlin, but Cisco put a hand over her mouth.

"Caitlin, this man needs food. Science can wait for now."

Glaring at Cisco over his hand, Caitlin relented. "You can have half an hour."

…..

Barry and Sophie strolled into Jitters and Iris immediately put down her jug of coffee and ran over to them.

"Barry! You're awake!" They hugged, and Iris stole one of Sophie's fries.

"Hands off my fries! Unbelievable," sighed Sophie.

"Both of you…I can't believe it. When you were struck by that lightning there was a hole in my life. I watched you die. Both of you, your hearts kept stopping," said Iris. Barry took one of her hands and placed it over his heart.

"Still beating," he said.

"Really fast," smiled Iris. "Speaking of fast, there's this streak or something that's been seen over the city-"

Sophie tapped her brother on the arm. "I'm gonna get a hot chocolate."

"Ok," he said absentmindedly, still listening to Iris. They sat down at a nearby empty table.

"-saving people. It's like what you've always been telling me. More people need to hear about this." Iris pulled out her phone and passed it to Barry. On the screen was a blog titled 'saved by the streak', with pictures of purple lightning. "They even saved me once. There was a man with a gun about to shoot me, next thing I know he's out cold on the floor and the police are turning up."

"Somebody pointed a gun at you?!"

"Yes, but that's not the point. The point is, someone or something out there is saving people."

"Hang on, what?! Can you run, like, all of that by me one more time? Iris West actually believes in the impossible?"

"Barry," began Sophie, resting her elbows on the table. "We need to go back to S.T.A.R. labs. Caitlin and Cisco called."

"Ok. I'll see you around. Gotta get back to the day job and all," said Iris, hugging them both once more.

…..

Back at S.T.A.R. labs, while Caitlin and Cisco were running tests, Dr Wells finally got a chance to speak to Sophie.

"I see you haven't told Barry about you being Dash," commented Dr Wells, even though it was more of a question.

"Keep it down. And no, I haven't. I thought it might be too much after a 9-month coma. What's it to you, anyway?"

Dr Wells took off his glasses. "I care about you, Sophie. I know his whole ordeal hasn't been easy on you."

"No, it hasn't. But my life up until this point wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Now I have the ability to save people…"

Dr Wells nodded. "You want to use it."

…..

Barry stood in Jitters the next day. Since he'd been discharged from S.T.A.R. labs he wanted to see Iris again. He saw her tear open a packet of sugar and pour it into a drink, but time seemed to slow and each individual grain fell into the cup one by one. Barry attempted to move his hand, and it vibrated so fast it was a blur. "What's happening to me?". I have to get to S.T.A.R. labs, he thought.

Caitlin ran a test, and explained that his cells were in a constant state of regeneration. "All those times you were in a coma and we thought your heart had stopped, it was actually beating so fast the machine couldn't detect it. The rest of the world wasn't slowing down, you were speeding up."

So his entire view on life had just been thrown out of perspective, but other than that Barry was fine. "So, um, what exactly does that mean I can do?"

Dr Wells rolled in and joined the conversation like he'd been outside the room listening in. No comment. "That's what we're about to find out, Mr Allen."

Cisco looked up from the computer. "There's an abandoned airfield nearby and – whoah." The computer pinged. "Looks like you're needed elsewhere."

Cisco led Barry into an adjoining room. On a mannequin was a red suit with a lightning strike in the middle of it.

"What's with the lighting?

Cisco scoffed. "So it's not boring!"

Barry changed into the suit and called Joe. "Send a team to this address."

"Eddie and I are already there. There's some man claiming he can control the weather or what have you…"

Barry looked in horror at Dr Wells. "I have to go." He hung up. "I wasn't the only one affected, was I?"

Dr Wells didn't miss a beat. "There have been others. Right now we need you to catch this metahuman."

Caitlin raised her eyebrows. "This'll be fun."

Barry looked so confused he made Caitlin doubt her knowledge of Newton's third law. "What am I going to do?"

"You have superspeed." Caitlin clasped her hands. "You're the best chance we've got."

…..

There was an abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere, and Barry could see a huge tornado headed towards him. Joe and Eddie ran out of the building and were thrown against a car by the force of the wind. The tornado was gaining force and inside it, no controlling it, was a man. Part of a nearby car was ripped off and nearly crushed the two police officers, but Barry threw himself against it using his superspeed.

"Barry, Barry, this thing is getting closer. Wind speeds are 200 miles per hour, and increasing," said Cisco in his earpiece.

"Yeah, loud and clear."

"If it keeps up, this could become an F5 tornado, and it's headed towards the city."

I have to save Central City. I'm the only one who can do this, thought Barry. The cyclone was getting even closer. He had to act fast. Then he had an idea.

Barry shouted into his microphone. "I'm going to try and run the opposite way around the tornado!"

Caitlin stood up and gripped the table. "No, it's too dangerous!"

Barry steeled himself and began to run. Something flowed through him, giving him strength and confidence. The wind rushed past his face and determination set in. but he was running out of strength. It was too late. But just out of the corner of his eye he could see a purple cloud following him. He gave one last push and the cyclone collapsed. The purple cloud had the outline of a person, who gave him a thumbs-up and vanished. That was weird. They looked almost familiar.

The dust cleared and panting, Barry turned around and saw the man pointing a gun at him. "I didn't think there was anyone else like me."

"I'm not like you. You're a murderer," said Barry. the man got ready to shoot, and fear welled up in Barry like a tidal wave. Then, before he could react, two shots sounded and the metahuman fell to the ground revealing Joe stood behind him. "It's over. I'm ok."

 **AN - I'd just like to thank all of you for your wonderful support and appreciation for this story. Thanks to Skylight369, sarahcobbler, TenWing and highlander348 for reviewing and everybody else who followed, faved and read.**


	6. Chapter 6

When Barry entered Jitters it was not particularly busy.

"Oh, hey," said Iris. "I just finished my shift. We have so much to catch up on!"

Barry smiled. "Yeah, do you want to go for a walk?"

"Sure, let me grab my purse."

On the way out of the door Iris pulled out her phone and showed Barry her blog. There were new pictures of a second streak, this one yellow. "There have been reports of a new super-whatever saving people around the city, in a flash. This is real, Barry."

What do I tell her? wondered Barry frantically. If she knows I'm the streak it could put her in danger. It's probably best for her to stay out of it altogether. That's what Joe would want. "Are you sure you should be looking into this?"

"Your whole life you've wanted me to believe in the impossible and now I finally do, you're telling me not to look into it. I don't understand you, Barry." Iris left before Barry could think of a response. "I'll be at home when you want to tell me what's going on."

…..

"Iris started a blog about me and the other speedster," announced Barry. "She's calling me 'the Flash'".

Sophie caught Cisco's eye and shook her head.

She hasn't told him, realised Cisco. "Wait, there's another one?"

Barry nodded. "I saw them when I ran around the cyclone. They have purple lightning. They helped me and saved Iris, so whoever they are they're one of the good guys."

"I have to say, I like the name. The Flash," said Cisco, accompanying it with a dramatic hand gesture.

"Yeah, it is pretty cool," agreed Barry.

In order to not appear suspicious, Sophie pulled out her phone. "I'll see what I can find about this other speedster," she said. It was a new experience, scrolling through blurry pictures of herself. "All I can make out is: purple lightning and blue suit."

Barry came over to her. "Are you ok. You seem a little…off."

Sophie glanced up from her phone. "Why would you say that? I'm fine." She backed out of the room and stumbled into the wall. "I'd better go, you know stuff to do and all that…"

"That was weird," commented Barry.

"You just woke up from a coma, and you have all these amazing powers. She's probably just overwhelmed," said Caitlin.

"Yeah," he sighed. He then jumped a mile high when his phone rang. "Oh, hey Joe. Everything alright?"

"Great. I got a fresh crime scene, dead body, detectives interviewing witnesses, miles of that yellow tape stretched over everything. I'm only missing one thing. Can you guess what that is?" asked Joe.

"My day job beckons." Barry shrugged apologetically and left.

…..

At the crime scene Joe handed Barry a laptop. "I downloaded the surveillance footage off the video camera. Looks like only one perp," the cop explained.

Barry lay down and looked at the footprints on the ground. "Footage may only show one, but it was six guys. Look, the tracks. They're all crossing each other. Six sets of footprints. Six guns stolen.  
We should be looking for a crew." He frowned closer at the footprints. " Huh Weird. The shoes, it looks like they're all the same size. Men's tens, I'd guess. Just like you, Captain. Not that you're a suspect, sir." Barry inwardly cursed himself. Life would be so much easier if speech went through his brain first before coming out of his mouth.

Joe led Barry to a corner. "Your ability to multi-task is truly remarkable. The way you can embarrass me, the captain, and yourself all at the same time."

Barry sighed, "Joe, I'm sorry."

"I'm starting to think "Joe, I'm sorry" is my actual name considering how often you say it to me. I know you're dealing with a lot, speaking of – have you told Iris about all this?"

"No. I want to keep her safe."

"Good. Now, get up to your lab and start processing evidence from the crime scene. And try not to embarrass anybody else while you're at it."

Barry began walking to his lab, but his phone rang.

"There's an armed gunman shooting up Stagg Industries. How fast can you get there?" asked Cisco.

"I'm on it."

Caitlin frowned. "Should we call Sophie as well? Barry might need backup and she's been doing this for longer."

Dr Wells looked at the CCTV for Stagg Industries, where a flash of purple lightning was just visible. "I think she already knows."

…..

Barry changed into his suit and raced to Stagg Industries.

"He's in the warehouse," said Caitlin, looking up a floorplan of the building. "Directions: left, hard right-"

"-I see him." Three identical men were walking towards Joe holding guns. Not good. Barry ran over to his foster dad, grabbing the guns off each of them. "Go!"

"No," said Joe. Next thing he knew he was outside the warehouse.

"Whoever you are, give yourself up," ordered Barry.

"We are not going anywhere until Simon Stagg is dead," said the men in unison.

Barry used his superspeed and began punching them, but each one multiplied until he was overcome. They came at him from all angles, until Barry was on the floor unable to do anything.

Then suddenly he wasn't. The purple lightning was there again, and they had tied up all the men.

"It's no good. He can clone himself," said Barry.

"I know. We have to move fast," said the purple speedster, their voice strange and echoey. "We need to find the prime. Incapacitate that and the other clones are useless."

One of the clones began straining, and another two appeared. "That's the prime," gasped Barry, as they brandished a gun at him.

Sophie moved quickly, pushing her brother out of the way as the gun fired. She wrestled the gun out of the hands of the prime, and tried to hit him over the head with it, but another clone came up behind her and grabbed the gun.

She moved out of the way, careful to make sure Barry never saw her face. "Get the prime," she said, vibrating her vocal chords at superspeed. Sophie dodged the clones as Barry punched the prime. He fell down, managing to fire the gun one last time before all the clones collapsed.

One of the clones kicked Sophie's legs out from under her, and she let out a cry as a bullet hit her side. The clones fell down and Sophie wasted no time in getting back to S.T.A.R. labs before Barry could speak to her.

"It's done. The prime is unconscious and so are the rest. I'll bring him back to S.T.A.R. labs," said Barry into his microphone.

…..

Sophie flashed into the cortex and clutched the desk, panting.

"Whoa," gasped Cisco, still reeling from the force of the gust of wind she created. "What happened?"

"Danton Black happened." She vanished, then reappeared a second later in her regular clothes. She pulled up her shirt to reveal a bloody graze on her side. "I fought a bullet, and the bullet won."

Caitlin started preparing the medical room. "It's probably not as bad as it looks, the bullet only grazed your hip, it's not actually in it."

Sophie's hair blew over her face, and Barry materialised in front of her. "Multiplex is in the Pipeline. Good job with the name, Cisco."

Sophie's phone rang and she attempted to get it out of her pocket, but winced and clutched her side. A small patch of blood was just visible through her top.

Realisation dawned on Barry's face, and he looked his sister in the eye. She opened her mouth but said nothing.

"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Barry.

Sophie looked at the floor.

"Actually, I know why. We won't get into that right now. What I really want to know is, what are you calling yourself?"

Sophie smiled. "Dash."

Caitlin coughed nervously. "Sophie, your hip."

Sophie looked down in astonishment, and realised the graze on her side had already healed.

"Not only do you have superspeed, you have superhealing," explained Caitlin.

"So, Flash," began Dash, "do you want to go for a race?"

…..

To the rest of Central City it probably wouldn't have looked like much, maybe a mysterious flash in the corner of their eye, but to the Allen siblings, it was something entirely different.

"Come on Barry!" called Sophie over her shoulder, laughing.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" shouted Barry.

They were tearing through the city, running like they'd never run before.

Grinning, Sophie arrived back at the lab first. She high fived Cisco. "It's official. I'm faster," she said just as her brother raced in.

 **AN - thanks to TenWing, Highlander348, Happy shipper 225, Princessmagic, Kingdom hearts slayer, Guest and spnlife321 for reviewing. I am almost up to date on episodes, I think I am one ep behind at the moment. Hopefully the next chapter should be up soon :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Cisco looked at the computer. "It seems Central City is safe once more. Which means we can kick back, relax and-"

"Monitor Barry and Sophie on the treadmill," interrupted Caitlin.

"Exactly what I was going to say," said Cisco, looking slightly peeved.

Sophie raised an eyebrow. "I think we can go a little faster than 12 miles per hour."

Cisco led them through to an adjoining room with a huge treadmill in. "This baby has been Cisco'd. Trust me , it can handle your speed."

Sophie grinned and stepped onto it. "Ladies first." Within seconds she was surrounded by purple lightning. Barry was next, yellow lightning surrounded him too.

"Sophie is definitely faster," said Dr Wells. "Probably due to the fact that she has less body mass."

"Or she just wants to annoy me," muttered Barry.

Sophie winked at him, and they both activated their superspeed.

"Oh honey," smirked Sophie. "If I wanted to annoy you there are a million other ways I could do it."

Barry rolled his eyes. They stopped using their speed and carried on as if nothing had happened.

"That's not to say," continued Dr Wells, "that you both can't get a lot faster."

"Sounds interesting," said Joe as he entered.

"Detective West," greeted Dr Wells.

"Is it ok if I speak to Barry and Sophie for a minute?"

"Of course." Dr Wells, Caitlin and Cisco left the room.

Joe sat down on one of the chairs and clasped his hands in front of him. "So, you two wanna tell me what's been going on?"

Sophie sat on the desk, but Joe motioned for her to get off and she rolled her eyes. "We were struck by lightning."

"Yeah, I know that part," sighed Joe.

"We have superspeed, caused by the Particle Accelerator Explosion," explained Barry, zapping around the lab to show Joe his yellow lightning. Sophie did the same, but poked Joe's arm and tried to look innocent.

Joe said nothing, just stared into space. "Running with lightning," he eventually muttered. "Maybe you really did see something that night your mom was murdered."

Sophie and Barry shared a look.

The moment was broken by Joe's phone ringing. "Hey Eddie… ok, I'll be there in ten minutes." He hung up. "I have to go, just don't tell Iris about any of this."

"But-" protested Sophie.

"No. I don't want to put her in any more danger."

…..

Sophie waited until Jitters was closed and only Iris was left before she entered, sending napkins flying everywhere.

Iris spun around. "Flash?"

Sophie stepped out of the shadows, disguising her voice. "Close, I'm Dash."

"You saved me from that man with the gun. I…thank you!"

Sophie smiled. "Just doing my duty."

"Can I interview you for my blog?" She pulled out her phone.

Sophie was momentarily thrown. She, Sophie Sarah Allen, was cool enough to be interviewed?

"How can you do what you do? Who are you?"

"No."

"Oh come on, you gotta give me something!"

Sophie held up a hand in a 'stop' gesture. "Iris…"

Iris gasped. "You know my name?"

"I know you're more than capable of looking after yourself, which is why I decided to tell you this." Sophie raised her hands to her domino mask, when suddenly she was outside on the street.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" demanded Barry.

"She deserves to know!" protested Sophie. "It's the only way she'll be able to look after herself in this crazy, messed up world we woke up in."

Barry looked her in the eye. "You were going to disobey Joe."

Sophie opened her mouth, but her words died on her tongue.

Barry took her arm. "Let's go back to S.T.A.R. labs, and just this once I won't tell Joe. But if you ever pull a stunt like that again, you'll have some serious explaining to do."

…..

"Come on," laughed Sophie. "It's just like normal running, but not."

"Great description there," smirked Barry.

Sophie grinned and led him back inside to where she had a powerpoint presentation on one of the computers. "Here is 'Dash's guide on how to be a superhero'."

Barry scrolled through the slides, reading each one at superspeed. "When did you make this?"

"Last night. Now, pretend I'm a bad guy and come at me."

To Dr Wells, it looked like purple and yellow lightning were having a fight on the aeroplane runway outside, but he knew it was much more than that.

"No!" said Sophie. "You want to disarm me first, then I can't hurt you."

Barry sighed and tried again, wrestling the imaginary gun off his sister.

"Better. Now tag!"

Before Barry had even registered what had happened Sophie was halfway across the airfield. He chased her throughout all of Central City, but she made it back to the lab before he could catch her.

"I think that's enough training for today," panted Sophie.

"I'd better get back to the station or Joe will give my job to somebody else," said Barry, and he vanished to change into his regular clothes.

"How are you feeling?" Dr Wells asked Sophie.

"I…"

…..

"If you wanted my attention there were easier ways you could have gone about it," said Dr Wells, smirking slightly.

Sophie sat up groggily. "What?"

"You fainted directly into my arms."

Her head was pounding, and the room may or may not have been spinning. "No kidding." She lay back down on the hospital bed and fell asleep.

Dr Wells dug his phone out of his pocket. "Hello, Caitlin? Yes, you're needed here in S.T.A.R. labs, Sophie has fainted."

…..

When Sophie next woke up the lab was full of people. Joe was sat next to her bed, shaking her awake.

"What's with all the people? Something cool happen while I was out?" she asked, still half asleep.

Joe shook his head. "Barry's out fighting a metahuman, and Caitlin and Dr Wells are trying to find out why you fainted."

"Then why are there people?"

"Umm…"

A tall young man walked over to her. "Hi, I'm Oliver Queen."

 **AN - thanks for the comments! Also, the cover image is a picture of Sophie that I drew. Let me know what you think!  
**


	8. Chapter 8

" _The_ Oliver Queen?! As in…" Sophie stuttered. Eventually she settled for a hand gesture that vaguely resembled a boat capsizing.

"Yeah, that one. And this is Felicity Smoak." Oliver gestured to a blonde woman wearing glasses.

Felicity smiled at her. "Sophie, you're really you! I mean, of course you're you, who else would you be? You've probably been you for quite some time now. Barry told me all about you. Well, not _all_ because we met before the lightning and all that…I'm just glad you're ok."

"Umm…thanks?"

Felicity blushed. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to babble at you. Sometimes I think my mouth wants to go solo."

Sophie laughed. "It's ok. Barry's probably around somewhere if you want to speak to him. I need to go and see Iris." She began to get up, but Joe put his arm in the way.

"No way. You aren't going anywhere until we know why you fainted." Sophie knew better than to argue with him when he did that face. "Caitlin and Dr Wells will have the results from your tests in a few minutes, and Cisco and Barry are fighting a meta called – if I remember correctly – the mist."

"Ok." Caitlin entered and started reading aloud from her tablet. "We know why you passed out. The lightning gave you increased cellular regeneration and from that increased metabolism. So, you need to eat more for your body to be able to keep up with your speed."

Sophie frowned. "So I need to eat how much exactly?"

"About the equivalent to-"

Dr Wells rolled in, "-850 tacos, according to Cisco."

Sophie's eyes widened. "Riiight."

"For Mexican I recommend Tito's," said Joe. "Best burrito in the city."

Dr Wells turned his wheelchair to face Oliver. "Nice to meet you, Mr Queen. I'm Harrison Wells. What brings you to Central City?" They shook hands.

"Felicity wanted to check up on Barry and Sophie after the lightning, and I was wondering if you guys would be able to help me with some strange sightings in Starling City."

"Of course," said Caitlin.

Oliver pulled up a photo on his phone and handed it to Dr Wells. "There's this guy who seems to be able to move metal objects. The picture's a bit blurry but I was hoping you'd be able to glean some information from it. Felicity tells me you guys are the best in the business when it comes to science."

"I'll see what we can do. Meanwhile, I have a strong feeling you, Detective West and Miss Allen may want to get something to eat."

 **AN - sorry for the wait and the shortness of this chapter, but I wanted to get this up as fast as possible. Next chapter will get more interesting, I promise. Thanks to Sarahcobbler, highlander348, Izzie Silverstar and PotterHeadTheGoldenTrio for reviewing.**


	9. Chapter 9

9 months ago

 _Iris sat down between the two beds where her siblings lay in comas. "Hey, you two. It's Iris. I don't know if you can hear me, but I hope you can, because I really, really need you to wake up. Like, the other day, Detective Pretty Boy came into Jitters, and he asked me out, and I actually said yes." She let out a sad laugh. "See, I do dumb things like that when you're not around. And the house is really quiet without you. I know that the reason that you came to live with us was awful. But Barry and Sophie, you made it a home again. You made us a family again. We need you. I need you." She stood up to go, pausing to take Sophie's hand. A sudden pain zapped her finger, and a small flash of electricity was visible for a split second. Probably just something from the lightning, thought Iris, mentally dismissing it. Or maybe I'm just paranoid._

Present day

"Hey, Dad, Sophie, and…Mr Queen," stuttered Iris. "What can I get you guys?"

"Please, call me Oliver. I'll have a coffee, thank you."

Sophie raised her eyebrows. "Do I actually have to ask?"

Iris laughed. "Ok, one hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. Dad?"

"Just coffee for me, thanks." They all sat down at a table. "Caitlin, Cisco and Dr Wells are handling the science stuff for now."

"Shouldn't Barry be handling the science stuff?" asked Oliver. "He is a …whatever."

"Forensic scientist. Yeah, he mainly finds out how people died not, you know, metahuman stuff."

Oliver sighed. "I am not calling them that."

"Well, what do you want to call them?" asked Sophie, smirking. "Oh, hold on." She pulled her phone out of her pocket and read aloud her text from Caitlin. 'We've got what we can from the picture. Can you make your way back here?'

They finished their drinks and began to head back. Iris tapped Sophie on the arm. "Sophie, um, can I talk to you for a second?" She led her to the corner away from Joe and Oliver, hitting Sophie's arm repeatedly.

"Ow," protested Sophie.

"You did not tell me that you knew Oliver Queen!" Iris stage-whispered.

"I know Oliver Queen."

"Does Barry know Oliver Queen?"

"Better than I do."

"Oh, my God, he's even more handsome in person. And his arms are, like, twice the size of Barry's."

"Technically they're not twice the size," protested Sophie, glancing at Oliver's arms over the other side of Jitters.

"He's on my three list. It's my list of three guys I'm allowed to cheat on Eddie with. You usually don't meet people on your list, but now here he is, and I just cannot stop staring at him." Iris stared romantically in Oliver's direction until Sophie snapped her fingers infront of her face.

"We have to go back to S.T.A.R. labs," she informed her. Iris nodded distantly, lost in her thoughts.

…..

Barry stepped into S.T.A.R. labs after putting the Mist in the pipeline. "Why do I feel like I've just been called into the principal's office?" he asked.

"Dr Wells wants to see you," said Caitlin with a pained expression on her face.

"Oooh, you're in trouble," said Cisco, laughing. Caitlin glared at him and he shut up.

"Hi Barry," smiled Felicity.

"Hey Felicity. Gotta go, sorry." Slowly, Barry entered the treadmill room. Dr Wells was sat facing him, face hidden by the gloom.

"Starling City vigilante," said Dr Wells. "He's here in Central City."

"The Arrow is here?"

Dr Wells nodded. "I don't trust him."

"You don't even know him!" protested Barry.

"I know that he was wanted for murder in at least 12 different cases dating back three years. I know there have been at least two major terrorist attacks in Starling since he became active. And I know he's out with Sophie and Joe right now."

Barry said nothing.

"They should be getting back right around-" Dr Wells looked at his watch.

"We're back!" announced Sophie. Barry and Dr Wells went to greet her, Oliver and Joe.

Caitlin clutched her tablet. "Right, now we've got everybody I'll tell you what we found out. The meta is a man named John Dilliger, he used to work at CERN as a magnet technician." She projected a picture of his company ID onto one of the big screens. "He was working on some equipment here in Central City when the Accelerator exploded, doing something called Magnetic Field Testing. He hasn't been seen since."

"So, can we assume he got his powers from the Accelerator?" asked Felicity. "Because if that was the case why is he in Starling City?"

Dr Wells nodded. "Good questions Miss Smoak. As far as I know yes, he did get his powers from the Accelerator but we will need to do some more preliminary work to find out why he is targeting Starling City."

Sophie sat on the desk and began swinging her legs. Joe frowned at her and she shrugged. Rolling his eyes, Joe sighed.

Cisco stood up. "Looks like we'll be making a field trip to Starling City!" he announced.

"Road trip!" cheered Sophie.

A few minutes later Sophie and Cisco were sat in the back of the S.T.A.R. labs van totally rocking out to Bohemian Rhapsody, complete with enthusiastic air guitars.

Dr Wells looked on the verge of murdering somebody, while Caitlin attempted to focus on driving. Barry was catching up with Felicity and Oliver in what Cisco had dubbed the 'Arrowmobile'.

…..

When they arrived it didn't take them long to find the meta. Well, you could say he found them. He pulled the lab van off the road, and ripped off the door using his powers. Sophie scrambled out and pulled Dr Wells, Cisco and Caitlin to safety. Once that was taken care of she called Barry. "We have a situation. Roadside, now."

Seconds later a red blur was at her side.

"So long as he doesn't get hold of anything metal you should be ok," Caitlin said in the speakers in their suits.

"Yeah, there's only a great metal _van_ next to us," sighed Sophie.

"Don't give him ideas! He's only human. One good punch should do the trick," said Cisco. By that time several punters had stopped their cars to watch the superhumans fight. Some were even recording it on their phones. "Guys, keep your faces hidden. Oh, and I have a name for him… Magnetite."

The meta thrust his arms out and the van rolled over, heading towards Barry and Sophie. Barry sensibly dodged out of the way, but Sophie jumped and landed on top of the van. As it began to roll again she did a backflip off and rolled out of the way at superspeed.

"Ok, that's just showing off," said the meta.

Sophie laughed.

"You want to see who's stronger?" he asked.

"No thanks." Sophie glanced around and noticed a Starling City's soda can factory about a block away. "I have an idea. Barry, follow me."

She ran and Barry followed her lightning into the factory. "Soda can factory. Are you sure that's wise?" asked her brother.

Sophie patted him on the arm. "Trust me." The factory was reasonably sized, with a production line filled with cans on one side and empty cardboard crates on the other.

Magnetite entered and caught sight of the cans. "You imbeciles, bringing me here!" he shouted. He thrust his arms at the production line but nothing happened. "What?"

While he was distracted Sophie snuck behind the wall of cardboard boxes and gave them a push. "Success," she whispered into her mic as he was buried in a sea of cardboard.

Barry gestured to Magnetite in confusion.

"Magnets don't work on aluminium. Turns out things you learn at school actually can come in handy," she laughed.

…..

"Hey, West. Don't you write fanfiction about those two?" One of her coworkers pointed at one of the TV screens where Starling City News was showing a video of Dash and the Flash fighting a man in black. The camera focused in on Dash, who paused long enough to toss her long hair out of her face, before jumping on top of the van. Something about it struck Iris as familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

…..

Just as Iris was locking up Jitters there was a breeze that signalled the arrival of a speedster. Dash's turquoise suit was visible in the shadows.

"I caught your fight with Magnetite. That was really brave of you," said Iris.

"It's no big deal. Actually, I came to thank you for all the good publicity. It means a lot that people don't just think we're dangerous."

"How can people think you're dangerous? You save lives!"

Dash shrugged. "People will believe what they want to believe."

"Speaking of belief, how do you do what you do?"

"It's complicated."

"You gotta give me something! Name, favourite colour, age…"

"Thank you, Iris," said Dash, making to leave, but Iris grabbed her hand.

"Wait I-"she froze. A small flash of electricity shocked her hand, but before she could react Dash had already gone. She'd only felt that before with one person. Sophie.

That was why Sophie was so unwilling to talk about Dash, and why they'd never been in the same place at the same time. It had seemed so familiar how Dash had tossed her hair, because Sophie did it too. No, not did it _too_ , they were the same person. Everything made sense now – but why hadn't Sophie told her?

Against her better judgement Iris pulled out her phone. "Sophie, hi. I need to talk to you."

 **AN - this chapter is much longer than the previous one. Thanks to highlander348 for the review and suggestions and Stargirl720 for the review. I love writing for you guys and it means a lot to me that you enjoy my work.**


	10. Chapter 10

Iris nervously tapped the table. She tried and failed to get her sentence out twice before Sophie broke the silence.

"Whatever it is you want to say, say it."

They were in the West house, the one they had both grown up in, and it was just them. When Sophie had gotten the phone call from Iris saying she needed to speak to her, Sophie's stomach had practically hit the ground and she could only think one thing. What if Iris figured out I'm Dash? She watched Iris pace the room a few more times, before she couldn't stand it anymore. Sophie stood up and took both of Iris's hands in hers. "Talk to me," she whispered.

"The girl with superspeed running around the city saving people." Iris looked Sophie in the eye. "Is it you?"

"Yes." Somehow the word left Sophie's lips without her consent.

Time seemed to slow down as Iris put her hands in her back jean pockets and paced the room. Maybe time had slowed down, maybe Sophie was using her superspeed again. Or maybe, no matter how hard she tried or how fast she ran, she would never outrun her problems.

When Iris turned to face Sophie again there were tears in her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried to. I wanted to! But there was so much stuff I was still figuring out."

Iris nodded. "Yeah. Teenage years suck." She tearfully laughed, but most of the old Iris was back. "Just, one more question." She chewed her thumbnail. "The other speedster, the one in red, is it Barry?"

Sophie nodded. "How did you guess?"

"I figured it had to be something to do with the lightning. When the two of you run, it sort of follows you. Have you thought about a possible connection to the night Mrs Allen was murdered?"

"I try not to think about that night too much, but yes. I have thought about it, but there's so much we don't understand. The scientists at S.T.A.R. labs are helping us."

"I wondered why you two were spending so much time there." Iris sat on the sofa and Sophie sat next to her. "So tell me," asked Iris eagerly. "What's it like having superpowers?"

Sophie smiled. "I've been wanting to tell you since we first discovered it! There's no feeling like it…" she described her feet pounding the concrete and the lightning flowing through her veins. "But Barry can probably describe it better than me."

"No," Iris protested quickly. "Don't…don't tell anybody else that I know. You know how Dad is, he'll think he's protecting me. So let's keep it quiet for now, ok?"

Sophie wasn't quite convinced. "Umm…ok."

…..

Harrison Wells checked around to make sure nobody else was present before placing his hand on one of the panels and watching as it silently slid away. He stepped in and they shut behind him, the automatic lights flickered on and he took off his glasses, sliding them into his jacket pocket. He stood up from his wheelchair and walked forwards, placing his right hand on a panel that activated the screen.

"Good day Dr Wells," greeted a synthetic voice.

"One can always hope, Gideon. I trust everything is still intact?"

The cover of a newspaper the Central City Citizen dated April 25th 2024 appeared on the screen, the headlining article 'Speedsters missing, vanish in crisis' followed by a blurry picture of Dash and the Flash. "It's not long now," he whispered.

….

Sophie dumped her bag on the table and looked around, but the lab was deserted. She headed out of the main room to one of the adjoining corridors, looking for a sign of life. "Dr Wells?" she called, her voice echoing around her. She was just about to give up when she turned around, and gasped in shock.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," apologised Dr Wells, after he silently materialised behind her in his wheelchair.

"It's ok." Sophie leant against the wall and tossed her hair. "I just wanted to talk to you about something, but it doesn't matter."

"You can tell me if something's bothering you," said Dr Wells gently.

Sophie closed her eyes for a second. "Rough evening, that's all."

"Well, if you ever need to talk, remember I'm always here." He led the way to the main lab. "Shouldn't you be heading home?"

Sophie rubbed her temples. "I was home, but then things got complicated. Can I spend the night at yours?"

"Of course. Do you want me to call Joe?"

Sophie held up a hand. "I'll do it. You're not exactly his favourite person."

…..

They arrived at the lab early the next morning, Sophie feeling more relaxed.

"I think I just needed some time away from everything," she explained to Caitlin and Cisco, when they asked why she arrived with Dr Wells. Eventually she let them get on with the science and started playing a game on her phone.

"Hey guys." Barry strolled nonchalantly into S.T.A.R. labs. "I might as well live here, considering the amount of time I spend here. More than at my own house and the CCPD combined."

Sophie looked up from her phone and smiled. Dr Wells emerged from an adjoining room, followed by Cisco and Caitlin who were both armed with tablets.

"Check the math. Your dispersal models don't correlate," said Caitlin, indicating to something on her screen.

"Uh, they do if you factor in the seasonal fluctuations in reproduction cycles," protested Cisco.

"What exactly are we debating?" asked Dr Wells, turning around with a baffled and amused expression on his face.

"The average number of bugs Barry swallows in a day of running," said Cisco, embarrassed.

"I look forward to seeing you accept your Nobel," said Dr Wells, leaving.

"Guys, eww," laughed Barry, trying not to look too disgusted. His phone rang, making him jump. "Sorry. Iris, hi. Ok, will do. Thanks, bye."

The three scientists tried very hard not to look awkwardly at Barry. Eventually he took pity on them and broke the silence. "Apparently there's a massive fireworks display going on outside. Want to check it out?"

Sophie shrugged, and pocketed her phone. "I'm in. Anybody else coming?"

"Sounds fun," said Cisco. "Caitlin?"

"Come on, Dr Snow." Dr Wells headed towards the door. Caitlin huffed and followed the rest of them.

 **AN - as always thanks for the comments, follows and favourites. There is another metahuman coming next chapter so stay tuned.**


	11. Christmas chapter!

"I'd say we did a pretty good job," said Sophie, stepping back to admire the Christmas tree.

Joe raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure _we_ had much to do with it."

"It's very…blue," was all Barry could say. And it was. Every single decoration was blue, ranging from sky blue to midnight.

"Yeah, well it's my favourite colour and I didn't see any of you arguing with me when I offered to decorate the tree!" protested Sophie.

Barry sat down on the sofa. "Joe, you said it was movie night. Still up for it?"

Joe grabbed a beer and sat next to Barry. "You bet. Just don't go bailing on me this time."

"Wouldn't dream of it. Sophie, you want to join?"

"No thanks. I have some stuff to do." She vanished in a flash of purple lightning.

…..

One indecisive hour later Sophie clutched Barry's present to her chest. He was going to love it! Making her way to the checkout, she froze at the sight of a familiar figure. Barry! He must have finished his film and come shopping. Not good. Glancing around to make sure nobody was paying attention (they were all too wrapped up with last-minute gift-buying) she used her speed and ducked behind a nearby shelf. She watched through the space between two loaves of bread until Barry was out of sight and briskly walked to the checkout. She purchased her item, checking over her shoulder every few seconds. "Thanks, bye!" she said and left the main area of the shop. Glancing back one more she saw Barry turning towards her. In one second flat Sophie turned away, dropped to the ground and did a commando roll behind the nearest pot plant. This is not weird in the slightest, she told herself sternly. I am a perfectly normal teenage girl hiding behind this hydrangea. That may or may not be a hydrangea.

"Sophie?"

"Heeeeyyy, Iris. I just thought this plant looked very, umm, interesting."

"And that has nothing to do with the fact that Barry is walking towards us?"

"Nothing in the slightest."

"Thought not. I'll distract him while you make your escape."

"Thanks." Sophie normal-person sprinted towards the exit, and ran the whole way home.

…..

Joe entered the living room brandishing a thermos. " Grandma Esther's Eggnogg. Light on the bourbon." He took a sip. "I always loved her definition of light."

Iris, Barry and Sophie laughed. Joe sighed when his phone rang. "And the Christmas tradition continues." Slightly disappointed, he answered. "Detective West. Yeah? All right. Sorry, kids, the D.A. wants to ask me some questions. Make sure there's some nog left for me when I get back."

Barry took a sip from his own cup. "No promises."

"I'll save you some," promised Sophie.

"Thanks," said Joe on his way out. as soon as the door closed Iris grabbed Barry and Sophie's hands and pulled them all onto the floor.

"What's happening?" asked Barry, noticing Iris's excited grin. She handed them both a present.

"Oh, come on, we're doing this already? Christmas isn't for a few days," protested Barry, without much conviction behind it.

"I couldn't wait any longer! Oh, wait, me first." Barry handed Iris her present and she opened it. Her face lit up as she caught sight of the piece of jewellery. "My mother's wedding band?" she gasped. Barry took it off her and put it around her neck.

"A replica, yeah. You were devastated when you lost the real one. Our fifth-grade field trip-"

"To the zoo." Barry and Iris finished in unison.

"You cried for weeks, or so I've been told. Many, many times," said Sophie.

"I don't know what to say. My gift so sucks in comparison," said Iris.

"I'm sure it doesn't," interrupted Sophie. "Anyway, open mine!" She thrust a brightly wrapped box with an obnoxious bow on top at Iris, and another at Barry. She could barely contain her excitement.

"Oh my word, Sophie!" Iris squashed her sister in a huge hug. "I can't believe it!"

"Whereas I cannot breathe," responded Sophie. Iris sheepishly released her.

Barry gave her a quick hug as well. "Thank you, Soph."

"You're welcome, guys."

Iris put in her new Links of London earrings, and Barry admired his new Christmas sweater. It was going to be a Merry Christmas after all.

 **AN - merry christmas! The actual story will be picking up again next chapter, thanks for the follows and faves and to highlander348 for the awesome suggestion.  
**


	12. Chapter 11

"Guys, there's an intersection coming up," said Caitlin through the coms. The three bikers they were following split up.

"Guys, which way?" asked Barry, his sister looking to him for instruction.

"Barry left, Sophie right," said Cisco at the exact same time Caitlin said, "Barry right, Sophie left."

"Stop! You both hear you're telling me two different things, right?" said Barry.

Dr Wells rolled in and took over. "Listen carefully. Here is what you're going to do. Both of you go straight on, Sophie get in front of the Queen and Barry get behind her."

The two speedsters closed in on the leader of the gang. Sophie stole the keys of her bike.

"Check," began Dr Wells.

Barry put up a barrier and took the keys from the other two gang members.

"Mate."

…..

"Give me some!" laughed Cisco, putting his hand out for a high five from each sibling.

"Efficiently done, the Allens," commented Dr Wells.

"We need a picture," announced Cisco, brandishing his phone.

Sophie laughed, removing her mask as Barry pulled down his hood. "I'm pretty sure rule number _one_ of having a secret identity is not taking pictures of yourself in your super suit without a mask on."

"Oh, come on, please! This is just for us," begged Cisco, jostling Caitlin's arm to try and get her on his side. "Just to document all this."

Much to their surprise, Dr Wells didn't seem opposed to the idea. "Who knows? Maybe people in the future will want to know how all this happened." He made a dramatic arm gesture encompassing all the lab.

"All right, well, if you want the future to have the whole story, then, we all need to be in it," said Barry, taking Cisco's phone.

Caitlin looked concerned. "First, let me put on some makeup?"

Cisco was having none of it. "The future does not care about your makeup." When nobody was looking Sophie provided Caitlin with some lip gloss.

Barry got ready and they all got into position.

"Big smiles. Three two one." Barry took the picture then zipped behind his friends as it took before returning to position.

"Does that count as a selfie?" asked Caitlin.

"Absolutely," said Sophie.

…..  
Barry and Sophie headed back home where they were greeted by Iris wrestling with a cardboard box nearly as big as her.

"You do realize the whole point of moving out is not being at home anymore, right?" asked Barry dryly.

"Hahaha. I forgot a few things."

Sophie gave the box a sceptical look. "A few?"

Joe came into the room and helped Iris with the box. As they were carrying it out he said, " Oh, hey, someone from Central City Picture News called you the other day I left the number on the fridge."

Iris practically shrieked and dropped the box. "What? Why didn't you tell me?"

Joe groaned and Barry stepped in to take Iris's end of the box.

"Chill! Just did," sighed Joe. Iris ran into the kitchen and a few seconds later they heard a scream. Sophie winced, and Barry frowned.

"Is that a good scream or a bad scream?" asked Joe.

Iris re-entered, excitement radiating off her. "Good! So good! I just got offered a job as a reporter at Central City Picture News!"

"That is amazing!" Sophie and Barry both squashed Iris in a huge hug. "I'm so proud of you," said Sophie.

…..  
Dr Harrison Wells entered his house and slowly stood up from his wheelchair, stretching his legs which had been still all day. The muscles screamed, but he did not wince. Instead he turned on the music using a remote and poured himself a glass of whiskey. He relished the sensation of it burning his throat and removed his glasses. Rubbing his eyes, he reflected on his long day. The Allen siblings were getting faster, there was no question about it. The future was coming.

Bzzzt. His phone pulled him out of his reverie. "Harrison Wells." The music stopped abruptly, even though he knew he had not pressed anything. The sheer confidence that his lie could not be exposed was the only thing keeping him calm.

A familiar voice came through the phone, like an icy hand squeezing his chest. "We both know what you did." This time the voice came through the speakers. "It's time to pay the piper!"

Desperate times call for desperate measures, figured Harrison. He got his gun out of his safe and pointed it at the only place where somebody could see in. The ceiling. The world slowed down as a crack appeared above his head, and he ran out of the way using his superspeed. The lighting crackled through his veins, invigorating him and driving out any fear he felt.

…..

Sophie followed Barry into the precinct, which was basically her second home. Well, there and S.T.A.R. labs. They found their foster dad in his office stood by his desk organising files. Sophie checked her watch, it was his lunch break in five minutes. "Hi, Joe." She waved before sitting down in one of the chairs and spinning around until Joe absentmindedly placed a hand on the back of her chair to stop it.

Captain Singh approached them. "Hello, Sophie. Joe, Barry, you two know Harrison Wells, right?"

"Yeah, what about him?" asked Joe.

"His house was attacked," said Captain Singh.

Sophie's chest lurched and she clutched Barry's hand. "Is he ok?"

Barry noticed her tight grip on his hand but said nothing, instead opting to place a hand on her shoulder.

Captain Singh nodded. "He's alright. Would you guys mind checking it out?"

Joe grabbed his gun, holster and badge. "Of course."

Captain Singh thanked him and left. Sophie physically sagged with relief, pulling out her phone. "I'll call Cisco and Caitlin."

…..

The heavy wooden doors swung open revealing Harrison Wells. "Come in." He led Joe and Barry through his colossal house, "I apologize for all of this. It just it really feels like a case of so much for so little. The police should not have been called. I got a prank call before all this happened."

Joe raised an eyebrow. "This feels like more than just a prank, Doctor." He gestured to the glass covering every inch of the floor.  
Dr Wells shrugged. "Well, there are those who feel I did not suffer enough for the particle accelerator explosion of last year, and some of them act on it."

Sophie, Caitlin and Cisco ran over to them. Sophie threw herself at Dr Wells and hugged him. Caitlin hung back, face taut with worry. "Dr Wells, are you okay?"

Dr Wells brushed Sophie off and held up his hand. "Sophie, Dr Snow, I'm I'm fine. A little chilly. Otherwise, I'm fine. Hello, Cisco. Make yourselves at home as best you can. I'm gonna make a hotel reservation."

He wheeled himself into the corner, leaving the scientists and speedsters by themselves. Cisco laughed, his gaze taking in all the fancy furniture. "This place is so sick," he laughed.

Barry frowned. "Yeah hey, what took you guys so long?"

Sophie jerked her thumb at Caitlin and Cisco. "They got lost."

Caitlin looked at Cisco and winced. "We've never been here before."

Barry's eyes widened. "Really? Never?"

Caitlin shrugged. "He tends to keep his private life private."

I guess that figures, thought Barry. He's not exactly an open person.

"Barry!" shouted Joe, squatted by the shattered glass.

"I'll be one second." He joined Joe in examining the glass. "There's no point of impact. No rock or bat or any solid object went through these windows. It's as if they just shattered themselves."

Joe nodded slowly and went over to Dr Wells. He lowered his voice and checked nobody else was looking. "This wasn't some teenage prank, was it?"

Dr Wells sighed. "No, it wasn't."

"But you don't want our help. Why?"

"Because I already know who did this. Hartley Rathaway."

…..

Barry, Joe, Sophie, Caitlin and Cisco assembled in S.T.A.R. labs. Dr Wells beamed a picture of a young man named Hartley Rathaway onto one of the TV screens. Cisco looked at it like something he'd found on the bottom of his shoe, and Caitlin refused to look at the picture at all.

Barry glanced at his sister, who looked as confused as he felt. Eventually, Barry broke the silence. "Who is Hartley Rathaway?"

Dr Wells clasped his hands. "Hartley Rathaway possesses one of the finest scientific minds I've ever encountered. I couldn't have built the particle accelerator without him."

Barry looked around the room in confusion, eyes momentarily settling on Sophie who shrugged. "You guys have never even mentioned his name."

Caitlin looked awkward. "That's because Hartley had a challenging personality."

Cisco took over. "What she means is he was mostly a jerk. But, every once in a while, he could be even more of a jerk. But he was always Dr Wells's favourite"

"So if you two were so close, why would he target you?" asked Joe, his police training always present.

"Hartley left S.T.A.R. Labs about a year ago after we had a disagreement."

Sophie could see how uncomfortable he was and decided to take control. "Don't worry, we'll find him. Barry, you should get to your lab. I'm gonna go see Iris."

…..

Sophie waltzed into Central City Picture News and took in the fancy décor and reporters hard at work on computers.

"Sophie, hi!" Iris happily greeted her adopted sister.

"Yo, this place is so dope," observed Sophie.

Iris laughed. "I think you've been spending too much time around Cisco."

Sophie smiled. "So, what are you up to?"

Iris's face fell. "It turns out Larkin only hired be because he thinks I have some sort of 'in' with Dash and the Flash."

"Well, you sort of do."

"But that doesn't make it ok for him to hire me because of that. He basically called me a worthless, talentless millennial."

"That's a bit harsh."

Iris laughed sadly, "yeah."

Sophie's phone buzzed. "Hello? What? I'm on my way." She hung up. "Sorry, Iris. Barry's in danger."

Iris nodded. "It's ok. Do what you have to do, but be careful." Sophie jogged out of CCPN and, when nobody was watching, used her superspeed to race to Rathaway Industries.

…..

Barry was stood in his Flash suit, Hartley Rathaway on the ground below him. They were both surrounded by shards of shattered glass. Sophie froze a few meters away from them and assessed the situation.

"I see the whole cavalry's here," commented Hartley.

"It's over, Rathaway," shouted Barry, ignoring his sister.

"You know my name. I know some names too. Caitlin Snow. Cisco Ramon. Harrison Wells. I can hear the radio waves emanating from your suit. About 1900 megahertz. Is that them on the other end, listening? Are they gonna hear you die?"

Sophie stepped forwards. "No. They're going to hear you get your ass kicked. Ready?"

Barry nodded. "Ready."

In the space of a few seconds Sophie and Barry found themselves on the floor, ears ringing. "Looks like you're not as strong as everyone says. Because, I know who Harrison Wells really is. You see, I know his secret."

Sophie didn't hesitate to take him down with a swift punch to the face.

…..  
"Good job," congratulated Caitlin, locking Hartley's cage.

"All in a days work," shrugged Sophie.

Dr Wells gently tapped her on the shoulder. "Can you give us a minute?"

Sophie nodded and left Harrison and Hartley alone.

"How did you know we were working with Dash and The Flash?" he asked, hands clasped and face unreadable.

Hartley stood and began pacing in his cell. " I wrote a hexagonal algorithm tracking all of his sightings, extrapolating a theoretical exit trajectory. In other words, every time he ran from the scene of a crime, he ran in this general direction."

"You are brilliant. And any anguish you have been through because of me was never my intent."

Tears welled in Hartley's eyes, but there was also a darkness in them. "Not bad as far as heartfelt apologies go. Except that wasn't for my benefit. That was for you, Flash." He looked into the camera monitoring him. "Feels good to have the great Harrison Wells behind you, doesn't it? But one day, this man will turn on you [laughs] in a flash and even you won't see it coming. I only hope that he leaves you in better shape than he left me. If you're lucky, you'll only be dead."

Dr Wells began to leave, but something in Hartley's voice gripped him. "I almost forgot I told your pet I know your deep, dark secret, Harrison. Have fun letting him in on that one."

…..

Barry and Sophie watched as Dr Wells rolled into the Cortex. "I assume you were all listening."

Nobody moved.

"Well, Hartley was telling the truth. I have not been honest with you. With any of you."

Sophie felt her stomach plummet. She tried to calm herself down, but she could tell her hands were shaking, so she clasped them.

Dr Wells was silent for a few seconds, trying to find the right words. Eventually, he decided to get it over with. "The accelerator. Hartley warned me that there was indeed a chance that the accelerator could explode. His data did not show just that there was a risk, but it was a real risk. And yet I made the decision that the reward that everything we could learn and everything we could achieve, that all of that simply outweighed that risk. I'm sorry."

Caitlin stood up, eyes shining with tears. When she spoke, her voice was as cold as ice. "Then the next time you choose to put our lives, and the lives of the people that we love, at risk, I'll expect a heads up."

She left quickly, followed by Cisco.

Sophie walked up to Dr Wells, and he flinched. But rather than hurting him, she hugged him. "It must have been difficult, keeping that in this whole time." She let go and hit him on the arm. "So why did you do it?"

Barry pulled his sister back and looked Dr Wells in the eye. "After the explosion, when everyone else left you Caitlin and Cisco stood by you. You owe them more than an apology. You broke their trust. Our trust."

Barry left, closely followed by Sophie who gave Dr Wells one last disappointed look.

 **AN - happy new year! Sorry about the wait. This was originally going to be one chapter but it got kinda long so I decided to split it into two. The metahuman who can turn into water will be making an appearance soon. Once again, thanks to everyone who commented and all the best for 2016.**


	13. Chapter 12

Cisco was sat frowning at Hartley's sonic devices when Barry and Sophie came in, the younger girl looking like she hadn't slept. Cisco opened his mouth to ask where Dr Wells was but thought better of it when he saw Sophie's facial expression.

"Hartley was using sonic resonance. The intensity regulator's measuring decibels. But you know what's weird? He had it set to the lowest setting."

"Am I supposed to understand you talking about Hartley's sonic booglieflip?" asked Sophie, pushing her hair, which looked as though it hadn't seen a brush in decades, out of her face.

Cisco decided to let it slide. "What I'm saying is he could've completely destroyed his father's building if he wanted to in one blast."

Barry frowned and took a closer look at the gloves. "So, why not just do it and leave? I mean, why stick around and run the risk of getting caught?"

Realisation dawned on Cisco and he looked up. "Unless he wanted to be caught." He stood up so quickly he knocked over his chair and raced to the Cortex, slamming down the button to make an announcement over the tannoy just as an alarm began blaring."Dr Wells! There's been a pipeline breach!" he shouted. "Stay here," Cisco instructed the Allen siblings.  
…..

"Hartley," gasped Dr Wells. Without pausing to think he activated his speed and raced towards the reactor chamber. But he didn't get very far before his speed cut out and his legs gave way under him. "Not now," he groaned, cursing himself.

…..

Cisco ran towards Hartley's cell, and his stomach sank when he realised it was empty. He heard a shrill wine building up, and a massive boom threw him across the chamber as the cell door exploded.

…..

Cisco's head was throbbing. He tried to figure out the source of the pain, but as soon as he remembered what had happened he wished he hadn't.

"Welcome back, Mr Ramon," said Barry as Cisco sat up.

"Ooh. Oh, man," he said, wincing.

Caitlin pushed him back down. "You need to rest. You have a concussion."

Cisco lay back on the pillows. "Please tell me you got him."

Sophie looked unimpressed. "Who, Hartley or Dr Wells?"

Barry gave her a warning look. "Sophie."

She held her hands up in exasperation and left the room.

"Ignore her. She's having a rough time and she didn't sleep last night," said Barry.

Cisco remembered his train of thought about Hartley's intentions. "I guess the attack on his family's company was a fake out so we'd catch him, and give him direct access to S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Why?" asked Caitlin, frowning.

"I should've known he was up to something." Cisco mentally kicked himself. "This is my fault." He didn't think things through and now his entire team was in danger.

Barry shook his head. "Hey, man. This is on me, too. I shouldn't have left before-"

Dr Wells interrupted him as he entered the room. "This is no one's fault but mine. I earned the blame I'm not interested in sharing it. Hartley doesn't think I've paid for my crimes. And he's right. He won't stop until I do." He turned his wheelchair to leave.

"Where are you going?" asked Barry.

"To earn back your trust," answered Dr Wells over his shoulder on his way out.

Barry took out his phone. He needed to call Sophie immediately.

…..  
Iris entered the CCPD headquarters, as she had been instructed to do so by her boss, and was taken aback by the sheer number of people. She turned to the nearest person she recognised, Mason Bridge, and asked what was going on.

"Press conference," he stage-whispered.

Dr Wells, looking rougher than Iris had ever seen him, wheeled himself towards the bombardment of microphones.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice," he said, commanding the attention of the entire room with his voice. "And for those of you that read the ten-volume report issued by the Norris Commission, well, I commend you on your tenacity. You already know, then, the circumstances that led to the explosion of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator. Or rather, you think you do. Now, the Commission's finding was that the catastrophe was caused by a chain of events that nobody could have predicted, including myself. The truth is I was warned there was a chance the particle accelerator might fail. I was warned by a former colleague a friend. I chose to ignore the warning and in so doing, I let down all of you. As a new friend pointed out I failed this city. I failed this city and I failed those who trusted me the most. By coming forward today it's my hope I'm taking the first step toward regaining that trust. And your trust as well."

Iris's gaze wandered around the room and settled on the Allen siblings stood just outside of the room. Sophie was looking at Dr Wells with tears in her eyes, and Barry was gazing at his sister with a mixture of concern and pride. They caught her looking and she smiled at them, before turning her attention back to Dr Wells.

"Are there any questions?" the scientist asked. Everybody in the room began chattering at once, Mason Bridge among them, but Dr Wells was looking at Iris.

"Miss West, do you have a question for me?" he asked kindly.

The crowd made a decent attempt at moving out of Iris's way. She decided to repeat Mason's question. Putting on her most professional voice she said, "I don't believe you answered my colleague's question, Dr Wells, so I'll ask it again. Do you have any intention of rebuilding the particle accelerator, either now or in the future?"

"Of course not."

Iris smiled. "Thank you for your answer, Doctor."

He smiled back. "It's my pleasure. No further questions." He left the room.

The conglomerate of people, realising there was no more scoops to be had, began to leave the CCPD. Iris was among them, until Sophie appeared at her elbow. She dragged Iris to a deserted corner and whispered, "you know that interview with Dash you were after?"

Iris nodded, worried for what her sister was going to say next.

"Let's do it. Now."

"What? Are you sure?"

Sophie nodded, and Iris nearly dropped her phone in her eagerness to interview Sophie, or Dash. Sophie indicated to the remaining crowd of people with her head. "How about we take this somewhere a little more…private," she whispered.  
…..

"Has Hartley made contact yet?" asked Dr Wells upon entering the Cortex.

"What makes you so sure he will?" asked Caitlin.

"Because he's Hartley, and he'll want to have the last word." He noticed Cisco sat at the work bench scrolling through files on his tablet. "Cisco, you should be resting."

Cisco pointed emphatically at the screen. "The answer to why Hartley fooled us into catching him is in here, and I'm gonna find it."

Dr Wells wheeled himself next to Cisco. "You have nothing to prove."

Cisco wouldn't meet his eyes. "Not true."

Dr Wells chuckled. "Do you know why I hired you, Cisco?"

"You said you saw something in me, I know."

"What I saw was humanity. You and Hartley, Cisco, you're both brilliant. You both have mental…sparks. But his brilliance subtracted from the experience of working here, whereas your brilliance, your heart, your warmth, your humour, it just adds to it. There is no chosen one, Cisco. No second or third favourite. Never was. It's just us."

The tender moment ended abruptly as the speakers crackled. Hartley's obnoxious voice filled the room. "Nice gambit, Harrison. But this isn't over."

Dr Wells rolled into the Cortex. Frustration and anger fuelled him. "Hartley, what do you want? What do you want, Hartley? I already gave my mea culpa today!"

Hartley laughed bitterly. "The city already hated you. You don't think I noticed that press conference was a pathetic bishop sacrifice? No, no, no. I've played with you too many times to let you get away with that. This is between you, me, the Flash and Dash."

"You don't want to play for those kind of stakes with me, Hartley."

"Actually, I really do. What do you say? One last game of chess?"

Harrison's mind whirred as he tried to fathom out a way of keeping the speedsters safe. "You and I both know that the winner of the game is the one who makes the next-to-last mistake, and you clearly have a move in mind."

"You're right. And I'm already at the board. So why don't you move your precious scarlet knight while I take out a few pawns."  
…..

Sophie was stood outside the CCPD in her Dash suit, adrenaline coursing through her veins. How had a normal 14-year old girl somehow become a celebrity superhero? Well, everything had ceased to be normal after the Accelerator Explosion. She turned to the crowd of people on the steps all holding cameras and microphones, and began to speak, being sure to distort her voice. "Hello Central City. My name is Dash, many of you will probably have heard of me."

Immediately she was peppered with questions. "Who are you really?" "How can you do what you do?" "Why do you protect people?"

She tried to answer them calmly. "I got superspeed from the Particle Accelerator Explosion."

"How do you feel about Dr Wells keeping secret that he knew it could happen?" This was from Iris.

Sophie took her time answering. "At first I was angry, but then I thought about it. He did what he had to do. He knew there was so much we could learn from the Accelerator, he also knew about the danger. I do admire the fact that, although it was not necessarily the right one, he made his decision and followed through with it. It might be a while before I forgive him, but he still has my trust."

"Why do you protect people?" asked a reporter holding a microphone with a number 52 on it.

"I have superpowers, what else am I going to do?"

There was some murmured general consent.

Sophie felt a grin stretching across her face. "Do you want to see a demonstration?"

The number of cameras pointed at her seemed to double. Dash held up her hand and vibrated it, until all you could see was purple lightning. The reporters applauded.

…..

Barry nervously paced S.T.A.R. labs. "Where do I go? I'm going to take this mook down!"

Cisco typed frantically on the computer. "I can't trace the signal. He could be sending his messages from anywhere."

Dr Wells fiddled with the pen in his hand, then clipped the lid down triumphantly. "Cisco, scan for seismic activity. If Hartley's using sonic blast, the vibrations could cause tremors."  
Cisco resumed typing then gestured to the screen. "Quake activity but no fault line. The Keystone Cleveland Dam."

Barry zapped out of the room to change into his Flash suit.

He was about to leave when Dr Wells spoke. "Barry! Don't underestimate him. He's brilliant."

He smiled and tapped his earpiece. "Well, good thing I'll have you in here."

…..

"Rook to knight four," said Hartley, thrusting out his hands and sending a car over the edge of the dam. Barry saw what was happening and ran down the side, diving into the car and picking up the woman inside it before quickly depositing her on the ground.

Dr Wells's voice came urgently in his earpiece. "Barry, you need to disarm Hartley immediately. Immediately! Do you hear me? He is a master of distraction. He is a master of hiding his true endgame."

Hartley caught sight of Barry and began to walk towards him, malice in his eyes.

…..

Cisco let Caitlin and Dr Wells handle Barry's fight with Hartley and carried on looking through his files for what Hartley could possibly have wanted so badly. Most of it was just…useless. Various experiments, results, and….oh. "Aha!" he exclaimed, shortly followed by "uh-oh."

"Aha what?" asked Dr Wells.

"I figured out what Hartley stole from S.T.A.R. Labs, why he let himself get caught."

"Which brings us to the 'uh-oh'," said Caitlin.  
Cisco winced. "He has all the data on Barry's molecular scans."  
"Why would he want that?" asked Caitlin. She had assumed they were of no use to anyone other than the team.

But Dr Wells understood perfectly. " He can get Barry's frequency." He leant closer to the microphone. "Barry, you need to get out of there! You need to get out of there immediately!"

…..

Hartley used his gloves to lift up four cars and levitate them over the water, knowing Barry would rush to save them like the hero he was. And he did, fast. Within seconds he was in front of Hartley again. He sent more sonic blasts, and Barry dodged every single one, getting closer with every second. The speedster ripped Hartley's gloves off him with such force it sent the other man sprawling on the ground.

"It's over! You lose!" shouted Barry.

Much to Barry's confusion, Hartley smiled. "Amazing. He replaced me with you? A total moron. I got you with the same trick twice."  
The gauntlets began vibrating, causing sound waves at such a high frequency Barry felt as though his head was going to split. He covered his ears and sank to the ground in excruciating pain.

Hartley slowly stood up. "I got the idea watching you and Harrison chit-chat to use your suit's own speakers to kill you."  
"Gah!" exclaimed the speedster, spitting onto the concrete.

"That feeling? That's your organs shearing apart," explained Hartley calmly. "And you activated the frequency when you disarmed me. In chess, we call that a discovered attack. You don't see it until it's too late. Right, Harrison?" He raised his voice so it could be heard through the speaker.

The Flash writhed on the ground, groaning in pain.

…..

"Barry's vitals are bottoming out. We need to do something," said Caitlin in her spectacularly angry way as she monitored the computer.

Dr Wells wheeled himself behind the desk, moving Cisco out of the way at the same time. He began typing and brought up a satellite view of the dam. "Barry's on the travel road of the dam, at rush hour, surrounded by cars. Many of those cars are going to have satellite radio. Satellite sends a signal to the car, song comes out the speaker."

Caitlin held up a hand in frustration. "Yes! I know how satellite radio works! How does that help?"

Dr Wells carried on typing, secretly impressed with his own idea. "Well, I'm gonna have the satellite send something other than a song. Hartley is about to hear something he was not expecting a sound wave that will meet the frequency of and destroy his weapons."

…..

Hartley circled the Flash, who was still on the ground. "You don't seem so special anymore. Given how easy it was to bring you down, I wonder if Harrison will even miss you."

Then he heard something. A screeching coming from the radios of the cars. His gauntlets began vibrating and sparking. He ran over to them and screamed as they exploded in his hands. "No!"

…..

Dr Wells ran a hand through his hair wearily. "Checkmate."

…..

The Flash slowly stood up, not entirely trusting his legs to work. "Barry, can you hear me?" asked Dr Wells through his earpiece, but it sounded like it was underwater.

"Sort of!"

…..

Barry entered S.T.A.R. labs, triumphant from his victory.

"How do you feel?" asked Caitlin.

"Fine!" hollered Barry. "I mean there is a little ringing in my ears, but other than that I'm good, so…"

Caitlin gently placed a hand on his arm. "You're speaking very loudly."

Barry cringed. "Sorry," he said slightly quieter.

"It's okay, it'll pass."

Cisco high-fived him. "Nice moves."

"Thank you," said Barry.

A breeze whooshed past them and Sophie materialised sat on the desk with a doughnut in one hand and a hot chocolate from Jitters in the other. "'Sup guys. What did I miss?"

Cisco rolled his eyes. " _Now_ you show up."

She took a sip from her hot chocolate and shrugged. "I was kinda busy."

"Doing what, exactly?" asked Dr Wells, bordering on stern.

"I caught your press interview. That was incredibly brave," she said. "So, I decided to do one of my own."

The entire room stared at her in a mixture of horror, admiration and concern.

Sophie calmly polished off the last of her doughnut. "Dash needed to give this city hope. So that's what she did."

"What-what on Earth made you think that was a good idea?" asked Barry angrily. Or that may have just been because he was still yelling.

His sister stood up. "I did what I felt was right. Dr Wells confessed publically, I forgave him publically and at the same time gave this city what it needed. A hero willing to stand in the limelight."

Realising she was making a good point, Barry stood speechless. Sometimes it was difficult to remember she was only 14.

Caitlin and Cisco shared awkward looks. "We're just gonna…not be here anymore," said Cisco as the two of them left.

Dr Wells looked at the Allen siblings. "It's difficult for me to admit when I'm wrong. Certainly, in front of an entire city but also…also to my closest friends. So I hope one day to restore your trust and faith in me."

Sophie hugged him again, and her brother shook his hand. "That day was today," said Barry.  
…..

Cisco shepherded Hartley into one of the containment cells. Even though he wasn't technically a metahuman he was dangerous. As the door closed he said, "Your evil hearing aids won't help you escape this time. So I'd get comfy."  
Hartley smirked. "You must be enjoying this, Cisco."  
"I am."  
"Ah, well, if that scares you, I can't imagine how you're gonna feel when you open up these doors - and let me out of here."  
Cisco raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, maybe I'm going deaf, 'cause I could've sworn you just said I'm gonna let you out."

Hartley nodded. "And very soon too."

Cisco didn't like where this was going. "Why would I ever do that?"

"Because I know where Ronnie Raymond is. I know what really happened to him that night. And I know how to save him."  
…..

Dr Wells heard a mysterious sound coming from the cortex. At first he could see nothing untoward, and then he caught sight of the source of the sound. Sophie was sat at the work bench with her head resting on the desk, asleep and snoring quietly. She looked so peaceful, with one hand under her chin and the other above her head. Dr Wells was reminded of the times when she had slept at his house, the day she woke up and after she had a 'rough day' but refused to tell him any more than that. He assumed she had told Iris that she was Dash, since she knew in the future and had recently been posting a lot of support for the speedsters on her blog. Not that he regularly checked it or anything.

Sophie couldn't be comfortable like that. Dr Wells listened out for any signs of life elsewhere in S.T.A.R. labs and checked the corridor outside and, when he was satisfied nobody was around, he stood up from his wheelchair. He slid one arm under her legs and placed the other on her back, gently lifting her off the chair and carrying her towards one of the hospital beds. He laid her down and covered her with the sheet, pushing her hair out of her face tenderly. She didn't stir, probably because she had been so exhausted all day.

"Sweet dreams Sophie," whispered Dr Wells.

 **AN - sorry for the delay. Thanks for the follows, favourites and to Sarahcobbler, highlander348 and neonkoi for the reviews. Next chapter should hopefully be up soon.**


	14. Chapter 13

When Dr Wells entered the pub Joe was already sat at one of the tables.

"I appreciate you coming down," said the cop.

"These days it's rare to find someone happy to have a drink with me," replied Dr Wells.

Joe didn't waste any time in getting to the point. "Ou conversation the other day got me thinking. You said, as a scientist, you look for the probable?"

Dr Wells nodded.

"And we both recently have seen things that have redefined what is possible," Joe continued.

"Yes, we have, and we both know the direct cause of those things."

"Your accelerator explosion."

"Evolutionary leaps follow the creation of new technologies. It's that simple." Dr Wells gestured with is drink.

"Like the Roomba."

The scientist laughed. "Yes, like the Roomba."

Joe set down his drink. "So humour me here. If we know that metahumans were created by the particle accelerator and testimony shows that a metahuman may have been involved in the murder of Barry and Sophie Allen's mother 14 years ago, it seems to me that way back then there must have been another particle accelerator."

"Another particle accelerator? I can assure you that's extremely unlikely, detective, and if they were I don't recall any dark matter lightning storms before I moved to town. Do you?"

Joe shook his head. "No, no, I don't." He frowned pensively. "When did you move to town, Dr Wells?"

The scientist set his drink down with more force than was perhaps necessary. "Something tells me that you already know the answer to that question, detective. This whole "help me solve the murder of Nora Allen," you were never looking for my help, were you?

Joe didn't react, but carried on pressing for information. "You opened your lab a month after Nora Allen's murder. Would you mind telling me what you were doing in Central City before that?"

Dr Wells kept his face passive. "I was starting over."

"Starting what over?"

Dr Wells spread his hands out in a gesture of defeat. "Here I thought we were just two guys having a friendly drink." He placed a ten dollar note on the table and turned his wheelchair to leave, adding over his shoulder, "You want answers, detective? Tess Morgan, look her up."

…..

Milly Brown was walking home, when her hair was blown across her face by a breeze, and she could have sworn she heard a female voice say, "you're it!" There had been several sightings of these so-called 'streaks', dubbed Dash and the Flash by the media, and everybody was going crazy for them. Real life superheroes, here in Central City. Of course, Milly knew there was more to it than what most people thought. She knew metahumans were real, not some sort of hoax or mass hallucination.

…..

Sophie ran into S.T.A.R. labs laughing. Caitlin stared at her in annoyance.

"What?" asked the speedster.

"Nothing," said Caitlin, straightening the paper on the desk in front of her. Barry materialised a few seconds later and sent them flying again. "Seriously?!"

"Sorry," he winced. "Sophie wins, again."

His sister laughed. "No superhuman criminals recently? Maybe it's their day off."

Caitlin glared at the papers on the floor, and Barry picked them up for her. She shuffled them into the right order. "The most out-of-the-ordinary thing all day has been a firework display down town, so no. But I wouldn't get too comfortable."

"Things could change any minute," said Dr Wells upon entering.

Sophie winked at her brother and they both activated superspeed. "Do you reckon he was just born with good timing, or do you think he waits for the opportune moment to enter a room?" she asked.

"I think you're over-thinking this and should get a life," he replied.

"Rude!" gasped Sophie. She winked again and they both returned to normal speed.

"Anyway," continued Dr Wells serenely. "You can have the rest of the day to do whatever you wish. We'll be in touch if your services are needed."

…..

Sophie Allen was a familiar face in Central City Picture News, so nobody was surprised to see her. Linda Park smiled at the young girl. Everybody knew her as 'that girl who was struck by lightning'. It must be horrible, thought Linda, for nobody to know you as _you_ , only as somebody who survived a disaster.

"Hi, Linda. Can I borrow Iris for a minute?" asked Sophie politely.

"Of course." She called over to the other woman's desk. "Iris, your sister wants you!"

Iris sat down with Sophie at an empty desk nearby. "What can I do for you?"

"I haven't told anybody yet, but I have suspicions of another metahuman on the loose. Could you provide me with a list of recent unofficial firework displays, or any info you can get on them?"

Iris frowned. "Firework displays?"

Sophie nodded empathically. "There's been a ton recently and I'm starting to get worried. And the CCPD doesn't exactly keep records of this sort of thing."

"I guess you're right." The older woman typed something on her computer then sent a document to the printer. "Here's all I could find, but it's not much."

Her sister perused the list. "That's great, thank you." She stood up and got ready to leave.

"If you have time, would you mind buying some more milk on your way home?" asked Iris.

"No problem. Thanks again for the list."

…..

Sophie walked through the supermarket minding her own business. Ok, I can get the milk then go back to S.T.A.R. labs and hopefully do something clever with this data, she thought. She grabbed a carton of milk and began making her way to the checkout when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something suspicious. Maybe I'm getting paranoid, she thought. Or maybe not, as what she saw next confirmed her suspicions. The girl she had seen put the mysterious object into her hoody pocket and made a dash for the exit. Sophie instantly put down the milk and, checking nobody was paying attention, used her superspeed to run over to the girl and grab her arm. The girl smirked at her and literally dissolved into water right in front of Sophie's eyes. It's official: I've lost it, she thought. Looking out of the window, she could just about make out the outline of the girl running away. Right then. This definitely isn't the world from before the lightning. Better get back to S.T.A.R. labs before something else unforeseen happens.

She bought her milk and made her way down the familiar route, enjoying the afternoon sunshine. She heard a familiar bang somewhere behind her and turned to see yet another firework display. This is getting insane, she thought, and in the middle of the afternoon! There's only one thing to do now – investigate. She followed the explosions of light and colour to an apartment building about a block away. Maybe I should call Barry and tell him what's going on, she considered. As she got closer, she could make a man stood in the doorway. Quickly, she ducked into the nearest alley and, thankful she had taken to wearing her Dash suit under her regular clothes, took off her exterior layer and put on her mask. She also put in her earpiece but did not turn it on. She entered the building and saw the man silhouetted against the window.

"Hello Dash," he said without turning around.

"Are you the person who-" Sophie never finished her sentence as he caused a small explosion right in front of her and sent her crashing into the wall, gasping for air. Pain ricocheted down her back.

"I've been expecting you."

"That…line…is so…overused," she croaked, standing up and leaning against the wall, breath coming in ragged gasps.

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you," he said. He moved closer to Sophie and she got a better look at him. He was tall, over six foot, with a stubble beard and close-cropped dark hair. He looked her in the eye and smiled. He caused another explosion to go off below Sophie's feet and tossed her across the room like a rag doll. Her head hit the concrete and she descended into unconsciousness.

…..

"Have you seen Sophie recently?" asked Caitlin.

Cisco and Barry shook their heads. "Maybe she's with Dr Wells or Iris," suggested Cisco.

"We haven't heard from her in ages. She usually calls if she's gallivanting off somewhere on her own," said Caitlin.

"I can call Iris if you want?" offered Barry. They all knew Sophie was the sort of person who would run to face danger head on armed with nothing but determination and gumption, probably getting herself into a serious scrape in the meantime. "Ok, thanks." He hung up. "She went to see Iris earlier asking about firework displays. Find out everything you can."

Cisco pulled a chair up in front of the computer. "On it, man. I'll take CCTV, Caitlin you hit the police records."

Barry nervously paced the lab while the two scientists typed away.

"Bingo!" exclaimed Cisco. "There were several explosions at a nearby flat about twenty minutes ago, I'll see what else I can dig up."

Caitlin beamed an image up onto the TV screen. "Michael Sparks. Believe it or not, he used to run an all-year round firework shop. He hasn't been seen since the Accelerator explosion. How much do you want to bet he's our meta?"

…..

Sophie woke up lying on a cold concrete floor with a pounding headache. She tried to sit up and figure out where she was, but was restricted by something attached to her left wrist. Upon further investigation she discovered that she was handcuffed to a radiator. She lent her head back with a sigh. Nice work, Sophie. Go get yourself captured by the bad guy. She looked around the deserted room. It was still daylight, so she probably hadn't been out that long. Her mask was also still on, so her identity probably hadn't been revealed. She tried to locate something with which to pick the lock on the handcuffs, but there was literally nothing. With her free hand she reached to turn on her earpiece, but it was missing. Probably got lost when I was knocked out, she figured. There was nothing else in the room apart from some old posters littering the floor, and charred sections where fireworks had gone off. The windows were too high up for any passers-by to be able to see her.

Alright then, she thought. Time to break out the superspeed. Sophie wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to achieve, but she started vibrating her arm as fast as she could until it was a blur. Half expecting the handcuff to disintegrate or at the very least come away from the radiator, she was very surprised to be thrown onto her stomach by the momentum when her hand suddenly became free. She looked at her wrist, then at both parts of the handcuff still attached to the radiator, then back to her wrist. Did I just vibrate _through_ the handcuff?

Shakily standing up, Sophie decided to get back to S.T.A.R. labs before the firework guy came back. He's going to be so confused, she thought smugly. Serves him right for capturing a speedster. Nobody messes with Dash! She jogged back to the alley where she had left her regular clothes and fished her phone out of her jacket pocket to call Barry.

"Hi, it's me. Yes, I'm alright. I'll be back at the lab in ten minutes and I'll fill you in then." In the shadows a few meters away she could see something. "Hold on," she whispered into the phone. She took a few steps to get a closer look. It was that girl again, the thief from the supermarket. "If I'm not back in half an hour, come looking for me."

" _Sophie, wait_ ," came her brother's voice through the phone but she ignored him and hung up. She put her phone away and followed the girl.

…..

Barry spoke fruitlessly into the phone for a few more seconds before Cisco gently prised it away from him.

"I traced the call," he said. "She was stood by that flat from earlier. I suggest you go and investigate."

"Good idea," said Barry. He quickly changed into his Flash suit and was about to run when Cisco held up a hand.

"Wait. You don't want to be running out there to take down Firework unarmed." He went into the workroom to and presented Barry with a handheld gadget. "I have a little something that might help. I actually made this for something else, but it might come in handy."

Barry held it at arm's length. "What is it?"

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "It's basically a high-tech fire extinguisher."

Barry took off and was at the flat in a few seconds. The room was empty, but he could hear somebody behind him. He turned around, and just managed to dodge an explosion somewhere to his left. Vibrating his vocal chords, he said, "You don't need to do this."

"Yes I do," grunted the man, pinning Barry up against the wall with one hand and aiming the other next to the speedster's head. He loosened his grip for a second to take aim, which gave Barry just enough room to raise the fire extinguisher. When Firework fired Barry set it off and the flame went out instantly.

"What?" Firework frowned at his hand, just as Barry hit him with the gadget. He dropped like a stone, and Barry ran him back to S.T.A.R. labs and locked him in the Pipeline.

"Nice work," grinned Cisco.

"Thanks. That just leaves the International Woman of Mystery – I mean Sophie. No, I mean the International Woman of Mystery."

"She'll be ok," said Caitlin gently.

…..

Ok, Sophie thought. Metahuman that can turn into water. How do I stop them? She carried on thinking as she followed them to yet another shop, then it dawned on her. Lure her somewhere so cold she can't turn into water!

She ran in front of the girl and yelled as loud as she could, "come and get me!"

It was a bit of a cliché, but it worked.

"You again," said the girl, and gave chase as Sophie normal-person ran towards Central City Ice Bar. Personally, I don't see why anybody would _want_ to go to a freezing place just for fancy alcoholic beverages, but each to their own, she thought. Quickly glancing behind herself to check the girl was still following, Sophie opened the door and entered. The change in temperature hit her instantly and she was temporarily winded. The metahuman entered as well, and Sophie used her speed to lock the door before the girl even knew what was going on.

"What, you some sort of vigilante?" asked the girl.

"Something like that," replied Sophie.

"Well, you won't catch me."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

The girl tried to turn into water, but instead turned into ice and back within the space of a second. She groaned in frustration. Sophie laughed and used her speed to unlock the door and transport the metahuman to S.T.A.R. labs. Thank goodness I'm faster than Barry, otherwise this might not have worked, she thought.

…..

They all watched as the girl hammered on the glass then turned to water in an attempt to slid under the door.

"Her name is Milly Brown," said Dr Wells. "She's only 13, even younger than Sophie."

"I like the name Hydro Hunter," suggested Sophie.

"That's already the name of a superhero," sighed Barry.

"Sorry, Nerd," laughed his sister.

"Fluid Façade has a nice ring to it," mused Cisco.

Caitlin clapped her hands together. "Aquarius." Everybody stared at her. "Come on, can't I name one?"

Sophie shrugged, "I'm with Caitlin."

"Aquarius it is," said Cisco as if he almost couldn't believe he was saying it.

"I'll look into contacting Miss Brown's family," said Dr Wells. "In the meantime, I suggest you go out and relax. It's been a long day."

…..

Joe entered the Cortex and placed a bottle of whiskey in front of Dr Wells. "Doctor," he greeted.

Dr Wells turned to face him. "Detective. Are you here to make more accusations?"

Joe kept his face passive. "I'm here to make amends. I looked up Tess Morgan. I'm sorry for your loss." The scientist nodded in acknowledgement. "You two were research partners in Maryland?"

Dr Wells smiled, a mixture of sadness and fond memories. "Yes, we were. We were married to the work as much as to each other. After the car accident I could not go back to the work. Could not go back to our lab."

"So you moved here."

"Where no one knew me. Where no one could remind me of what I had lost and, um, I found it difficult, starting over, rebuilding, and what took me 14 years Tess could have done in 4, believe me, she…" He cleared his throat. "At the time of Nora Allen's murder, the particle accelerator that I would eventually create was but a notion, much less a reality, and so whomever or whatever is responsible for her death, it did not originate from me or from my work."

Joe nodded slowly. "There was just one more thing I wanted to ask you."

Dr Wells spread his hands out in a gesture of surrender. "Shoot."

"Sophie Allen. She seems very fond of you."

Dr Wells looked away into the distance, his eyes misty. "At the time Tess was killed she…she was pregnant. Had she survived our child would now be Sophie's age. Sophie Allen is a remarkable young woman, and I am honoured to know her."

Joe nodded. "Yes, yes she is. Dr Wells, I'm sorry I doubted you, but I hope I can still count on your help."

The scientist chuckled. "You don't give up, do you?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Not till I get my man. I owe that to Barry and to Henry."

"Barry and Sophie are lucky to have you on their side, Joe."

 **AN - thanks to Sarahcobbler, highlander348, WinterRain36 and Stargirl720 for the reviews and suggestions - they should be making appearances soon. I'm glad you are all enjoying the story :)**


	15. Chapter 14

Caitlin was walking to her car alone when she thought she heard footsteps behind her. She tried to convince herself that she was imagining it. Things like that had been going on ever since the Accelerator explosion. Every now and then she'd feel like she was being watched, or that there was somebody behind her, but whenever she turned round there was nobody there. She hadn't told anyone in case they thought she was mad or delusional. The footsteps got closer. Maybe I'm not imagining it this time, she thought. Listen to yourself, Caitlin. Maybe you are mad. She was about to open her car door when she caught the reflection of a face in it. A very familiar face. Ronnie.

She turned but there was nobody there. Out of the corner of her eye she could just see somebody vanishing around the corner. She rushed to try and find them, but by the time she got there he had gone. This is it. I've finally lost it. I need to speak Cisco. He'll talk some sense into me.

She wiped her eyes, straightened her top and clenched her hands into fists. Thankfully, when she entered the lab there was only Cisco there. He looked up and clocked her facial expression instantly. "Are you okay?"

"Ronnie's alive. I saw him, Cisco. I think he was following me." Saying those words didn't make it seem any more real.

Cisco stood up and walked around the desk to hug her. "Caitlin Ronnie died. He was vaporized in the accelerator when it went critical."

She shook her head. Somehow she just _knew_ that what she had seen was real. Certainty implanted itself into her mind. "Ronnie's alive, and he's out there alone and scared, and I need your help to find him."

Cisco sat back down and clasped his hands behind his head. "You're sure it was him?"

"I think I'd recognise my own fiancé."

He sighed. "Alright. I'm in, on one condition."

"Which is?"

"We get Sophie involved. I think we need the opinion of somebody who never met Ronnie, and she will be more willing to help than Barry."

Caitlin relaxed. "Deal." She sat down at the computer, pausing to smile gratefully at her best friend. She called Sophie's cell.

"Hello?"

"Sophie, hi. Can we borrow you for a minute?"

"Yep. Give me thirty seconds."

She materialised in front of them. "Somebody requested a speedster?"

Caitlin stood up. "Sorry to tear you away from…whatever you were doing."

"Family trivia night. It's alright. Everybody knows I'm Dash, but not everybody knows that everybody knows and it's all very confusing. But yeah: nobody minds." She frowned. "Does that make sense?"

"Ummmmm…." Cisco stared pensively off into the distance. Then he snapped his fingers and turned back to Sophie. "Yes."

She gave him two thumbs up. "Ok. Anyway, Caitlin. What can I do for you?"

Caitlin bit her bottom lip. "You've heard of my fiancé Ronnie."

"Yes. Isn't he the one that died in the explosion?"

"Or so we thought," said Cisco.

"You've lost me," said Sophie.

"What Cisco meant to say," said Caitlin as she gave him a pointed look, "was that we think Ronnie might not be dead."

Sophie shrugged. "All I'm gonna say is: anything is possible in Central City."

Caitlin smiled softly. "Thank you for not saying I'm crazy."

Sophie laughed. "Hey, I woke up from a 9-month coma a superhero. Not exactly qualified to say things are impossible. Cisco, I assume you have a gadget of some description to aid the situation?"

"Don't I always?" He stood up and went into the work room.

"Does he literally just make things in his spare time?" whispered Sophie.

Caitlin took a step closer to her. "While you were in a coma we had a lot of time on our hands."

"That makes sense."

Cisco returned holding a device that somewhere between a want and a spatula. "This is a Geiger counter. We follow the ionized particles, and that should lead us right to him."

…..

Caitlin and Sophie followed Cisco down an underground tunnel. "The CPMs are increasing," he informed them. "We should have told Dr Wells and Barry."

Caitlin shook her head empathically. "No, not until we're sure it's him." She nervously wrung her hands. "Look, Ronnie is not like you remembered him."

Cisco looked worried. "What does that mean?"

"Just don't freak out when you see him, okay?"

The Geiger counter stopped beeping. Cisco and Caitlin shared worried looks. "Oh, I really wish that was because the batteries were dead."

In front of Sophie was a tall man with long scraggly hair wearing a tattered hoody. Caitlin held out one hand and took a step closer to him. "Ronnie? Ronnie, it's me, Cait. Look, I brought Cisco with me. And this is Sophie, she's a friend. We're here to help you. You were in an accident. Do you remember?"

Cisco and Sophie tried to hide behind each other, both feeling like they were intruding on a private moment.

The man shied away from Caitlin's outstretched hand. "I'm not Ronnie." His voice was rough and every syllable seemed strained. There was fear and confusion in his eyes.

Caitlin took another step forwards. "Yes, you are. You're Ronnie Raymond."

"I'm not Ronnie. I told you that." His voice was firmer now. Certain. "Now get away from me."

"Look, we need to take you back to S.T.A.R. Labs. We'll help you remember who you are."

He closed the gap between the two of them and whispered, "Firestorm." He then wrenched himself away and burst into flames.

Caitlin shielded her eyes with her arm and leaned closer to Cisco and Sophie.

…..

"How am I expected to know that?" asked Iris. "That's, like, totally random."

Barry shrugged. "That is sort of the point of trivial pursuit."

Iris mock-punched him on the arm. "Right, I'm looking up the answer." She reached for her laptop.

"That is _totally_ cheating," said Barry.

"Bar's right," added Joe.

"Ok, ok." Iris surrendered and put her laptop away. "I'm going to guess wrongly and loose and it will be both your faults."

Barry mock-considered it for a second. "I can live with that."

…..

Dr Wells was in the Cortex when Sophie, Caitlin and Cisco returned. "Dr Snow," he began. "I would greatly appreciate your help looking at Barry's latest CT scans."

"Of course, Dr Wells." She sat down and began typing on the computer, clearly grateful for the distraction.

Cisco led Sophie over to the corner. "We need to do something."

"Yeah I know, but what?" she whispered.

"I wasn't sure whether or not to tell anybody, but Hartley is claiming he knows what happened to Ronnie."

"And Hartley is the psycho sound wave dude locked in the Pipeline?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"Then what are we waiting for?" She motioned for Cisco to lead the way.

…..

As the doors slid away they revealed Hartley sat on the floor of his cell looking at Cisco condescendingly as if he had always known the scientist would be back. "I've had the biggest craving for Thai food," he said conversationally.

"You're not getting any," said Sophie.

"You must be the other speedster. Dash, is it? You don't look like much." Sophie looked like she was about to punch him in the face there and then, but Cisco held her back.

"You said you knew what happened to Ronnie and how he was still alive. And you said Professor Stein was at S.T.A.R. Labs the night of the explosion."

"Yes. He was," replied Hartley mysteriously.

"Wait, who is Professor Stein?" asked Sophie.

"He's just some scientist," said Cisco distractedly.

"Professor Stein," said Hartley. "Is a scientist working on a project called F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M." He stood up. "But, the mystery isn't why Stein went to S.T.A.R. Labs that night. It's why he didn't leave."

"Tell me," ordered Cisco.

"Can't. I have to show you."

"You are not getting out of this cell."

Hartley shrugged. "Fair enough, but I know you, Cisco. I know how much you looked up to Ronnie. He was like family. A family you built for yourself here. I know how much you want to see that family healed. Let me help you."

"I don't believe you," said Cisco.

"We need his help," Sophie whispered to Cisco. "Please."

…..

"You said you were gonna show me what happened to Ronnie. Ronnie died inside the building. What are we doing out here?"

Hartley had led them to a small alcove outside the main building. "What do you see?" he prompted.

"I don't know. Buildings, walls, dirt." Cisco accompanied each observation with a hand gesture indicating to it.

Hartley tutted. "Wells would be so disappointed in your observational skills. Look again."

Cisco and Sophie noticed something that resembled the outline of a man in dirt on the wall.

"爆弾の影," said Hartley. "It's Japanese."

"How can you speak six languages and sound like a jerk in every one of them?" asked Cisco. Sophie suppressed a giggle.

"It means 'bomb shadow'. They found these all over Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb was dropped. This shadow belonged to Martin Stein," explained Hartley.

"The accelerator explosion did this to him?" asked Cisco.

"You really don't see it, do you? You're gonna kick yourself when you figure it out." He shrugged.

Realisation dawned on Cisco, along with a lot of frustration. "You were full of it then, and you're full of it now. This is just another one of your lame-ass tricks. Come on. We're going back into the Pipeline."

Hartley hit Cisco in the face with the middle part of his handcuffs. Cisco ducked Hartley's next swing, then rammed him into the wall. Hartley took the other man's knees out from under him, but Sophie leapt into action and got him in a headlock.

"Nice work," said an impressed Cisco.

Sophie nodded. "We should get him back into his cell."

Hartley managed to flip Sophie over his head, leaving her gasping on the concrete. Cisco pulled out a device and set off a high frequency tone. Hartley collapsed in pain.

"You're not the only one who understands vibrations, Hartley. Those cochlear devises you're wearing? I made a few adjustments."

"No, please don't!"

"If you know how to find Ronnie, then you better tell me. Right now," threatened Cisco. Sophie managed to drag herself into a sitting position.

"Please, make it stop. Please. I'll show you. I'll show Ah Aah!"

Cisco reluctantly turned off the device. "Try that again, and I won't make it stop. Ever."

Hartley stood up. "I'm impressed. Didn't think you had that in you."

"He's not the only one with tricks up his sleeve," said Sophie.

"I'll show you. But you have to take these off me if you want to find out the truth." He held up his cuffed hands.

"And why is that?" asked Cisco.

"It'll look a little conspicuous where we're going next."

"And where might that be?" asked Sophie.  
….

Hartley sat at one of the computers in a deserted office at the police station. "CCPD confiscated everything from S.T.A.R. Labs after the explosion. Video, audio, traffic cam footage."

"Okay, so?" asked Cisco.

"I saw Martin Stein the night S.T.A.R. Labs went boom. He walked right past me. You see, Stein specialized in transmutation. Molecular transmography. Quantum splicing."

"And in English that would be…" prompted Sophie.

"Taking two things and making them one." They both looked at Hartley with blank faces.

"What does that have to do with any of this?" asked Cisco.

Hartley sighed and shook his head. "Let's go to the videotape, shall we?" Cisco played a CCTV recording of a man, presumably this Stein character, holding a glowing yellow box coming up the steps of the lab. "Okay, stop. Now zoom in a few clicks. Now advance it, frame by frame." The video showed some sort of orange matter spreading out from the building and Stein being hit by it.

"His eyes," breathed Cisco. "They turned white, just like Ronnie's."

"Now, stop there," ordered Hartley, pointing to something on the screen. "In the mass of energy."  
"Looks like," began Sophie.

"Ronnie," finished Cisco.

"And Professor Stein," added Hartley. "The dark matter merged them together. Explains why Ronnie hasn't seemed quite himself lately. Because he's not. He's Martin Stein."

"You can't say I didn't keep up my end of the bargain," said Hartley, pulling out part of his cochlear device and setting off a tone. Cisco and Sophie clutched at their ears. Hartley began to leave, but Sophie stuck out her leg and tripped him up. He rolled his eyes and stood back up. On his way out he added, "I figure that makes us even, Stephen. Adios."

…..

It had been a long time since Barry had been in his lab at the CCPD after dark. 13 months, to be exact. Only 4 of which he could remember. He looked out of his window at the familiar street, then saw something decidedly unfamiliar. A man in a yellow suit. He ran towards Barry, and he could see red lightning following him. Just like Barry's own. It looked so familiar. The night my mom was murdered! There was red and yellow lightning. He ran out of his lab faster than he'd ever run before, and met the man on the street. "It was you," he shouted. "You were the one in my house that night. You killed my mother! Why?"

"If you want to know that, you're gonna have to catch me," said the man in yellow, distorting his voice. Barry screamed and gave chase. They tore through the streets of Central City, thoughts on nothing but each other. Eventually they stopped in a football stadium where the man in yellow threw Barry onto the ground. "Not fast enough, Flash," he taunted.

Barry groaned in pain and tried to sit up. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am, Barry," he said mysteriously.

"I don't know who you are."

"But you do, Barry. We've been at this a long time, you and I, but I'm always one step ahead. It is your destiny to lose to me, Flash, just as it was your mother's destiny to die that night."

 **AN - thanks to Highlander348, TheRealNerd and WinterRain36 for the comments and suggestions. An Arrow crossover and some interesting new developments (including new powers) are coming up soon :)**


	16. Chapter 15

Sophie spun on her chair, hands clasped behind her head. "I wonder where Barry is," she pondered aloud. Next thing she knew, her chair had been knocked over and she was on the floor. "Excuse you!" she exclaimed grumpily.

"Found him," said Cisco, pointing at Barry. Sophie followed his gaze and saw her brother holding onto the table for support, eyes wide. He looked haunted, a way she hadn't seen him since the night their mother had been killed.

She stood up and walked over to him. "Are you ok?" she asked gently. He shook his head sadly, still not meeting her eyes. "Do you want me to call Joe?" Barry nodded. Sophie guided him to a chair, sharing worried glances with Cisco and Caitlin.

Sophie pulled out her mobile. "Joe, I need you to come to S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry's here but he's as white as a sheet and all emo and not talking and I'm really worried!"

"What do you think happened?" Cisco asked Caitlin. They were stood in the corner of the room not sure what to do about Barry. But to be honest, Sophie seemed to know what she was doing.

"He seems to be exhibiting signs of trauma, or maybe post-traumatic stress, but it's too early to be able to tell much," said Caitlin.

"There was a man," Barry whispered. Sophie bit her bottom lip.

Joe entered, caught sight of Barry and froze. "What the hell happened?!" he asked Sophie.

She shrugged. "All he's said is 'there was a man'. Not very helpful considering the amount of men in the world!"

Barry stood up and turned to face them. "The man who killed my…our mother. I saw him. I spoke to him!"

"YOU WHAT?!" exclaimed Sophie.

"I spoke to him. He acted like he knew me, like we'd done this before."

Joe stepped forward. "He was antagonizing you, Bar."

Barry shook his head. "I would get close, and he'd just pull away. I mean, this was just some sick game to him."

Caitlin smiled gently. "You'll catch him. We'll help."

Barry waved her away. "No, you don't get it, all right? His speed, it is it's beyond me. I'm not the fastest man alive. He is. So how do we catch somebody that even I can't keep up with?"

"Easy," said Sophie. "I do it." She gazed resolutely at them all. "But first, we have a man on fire to find."

…..

Iris's phone rang. She glanced around the CCPN office to make sure nobody was listening in. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Sophie. I was catching up on your blog, and this story caught my eye about a man whose head and hands burst into flames?"

"The burning man?" offered Iris in a whisper. "Is he dangerous? Do you need to capture him?"

"Something like that," replied Sophie.

"I haven't really updated that story in a while, but there are some reports that I could send you."

"That'd be great. Thank you, Iris."

…..

The whole gang was gathered in S.T.A.R. Labs, and Sophie had a PowerPoint up on the TV screens complete with CCTV screenshots. "Quentin Quale was attacked near his lab at Concordance Research last night. There were several unsubstantiated reports of the so-called "Burning Man" in the area following the attacks. Iris told me what she can about him, but it's not a lot to go on."

Dr Wells frowned. "Well, it appears letting Ronnie roam free is no longer an option."

Caitlin shook her head. "He's not even Ronnie anymore. He's Martin Stein walking around in Ronnie's body, like a vampire."

"Is there a reason that Stein's brain is in control of Ronnie's body, not the other way around?" asked Cisco.

"Simple Darwinism, I suspect. A brand-new organism will select the strongest parts of itself in order to survive. Survival of the fittest. In this case, Ronnie's body, Stein's mind." Dr Wells cleared his throat. "In any event, he badly hurt an innocent man, and we have hunted meta-humans for less. Caitlin, we need to know that you're on board with what needs to be done here."

Caitlin looked forlornly at the floor. "I'm in," she whispered.

Sophie smiled encouragingly at her.

"How do we find him?" asked Barry.

Dr Wells clicked onto the next slide of the PowerPoint which brought up a Concordance Research ID picture of an older man with a moustache and glasses. "Quentin Quale, the scientist that Ronnie attacked, is a former colleague of Martin Stein. If Martin is indeed in control of Ronnie's body, he may be trying to figure out exactly what's happening to him."

Barry shrugged. "What do we know about him? I don't even know what Stein looks like."

Dr Wells clicked onto the next slide. "Professor Martin Stein."

Barry's jaw dropped. "That's Stein?"

Dr Wells nodded. "It is."

"I've seen him before. On the train, the day the accelerator exploded. He spoke to me about your work, actually. It was pretty cool, we discussed Einstein and architecture and-"

"Ok," interrupted Sophie. "You have to stop him eventually, otherwise he will be geeking out indefinitely," she added to Caitlin and Cisco. Dr Wells handed her the remote and she clicked onto the final slide. "We can go and speak to his wife, Clarissa Stein. She might know something that could help us."

…..

"Of course I've heard of S.T.A.R. Labs. Martin was always vocal about the competition," said Clarissa Stein. She seemed willing enough to speak to a small gang of scientists who had appeared unannounced at her doorstep.

"S.T.A.R. Labs is actually helping the CCPD looking into your husband's disappearance, Mrs  
Stein," explained Barry.

"Oh, please. Call me Clarissa," she smiled.

Dr Wells glanced over the various trophies and awards on display, but one caught his eye in particular. "The Conway Prize for Scientific Advancement. I'd always hoped to win one of these myself. Oh, and look at that. He won it three times."

"It takes a special kind of person to make Dr Wells jealous," Caitlin told Clarissa.

The older woman shrugged. "Well, Martin had a talent for making people jealous. Even me. I sometimes think Martin loved his theorems and experiments more than he did me."

Caitlin smiled sympathetically at her. "I'm sure that's not true.

"And you haven't heard from your husband since he disappeared?" asked Barry.

Clarissa shook her head.

"Mrs Stein, could I show you a photograph? Have you seen this person before?" Dr Wells showed her a picture of Ronnie.

She stared at it in fascination for a few seconds as the feeling of somebody watching her just inside her peripheral vision returned. "Yes, I have. Who is he?"

Barry awkwardly glanced at Sophie, who nodded for him to answer the question. "Um he's just a person of interest in your husband's case."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "When did you see him?"

Clarissa laced and unlaced her fingers. "I started getting the feeling that someone was watching me, and sometimes I still do. And about a month after Martin disappeared, that young man showed up here. He tried to talk to me, but he didn't make any sense."

Dr Wells nodded slowly. "Ok, Mrs Stein. Thank you for your time."

…..

Caitlin and Dr Wells were sat in the lab van waiting to see if Ronnie turned up at the Stein residence. Caitlin was trying not to let the fact that her hands were shaking show. After all this time the idea of seeing Ronnie again was too difficult for her to comprehend. He wasn't even Ronnie anymore, but she hoped somehow he was still in there. There was a game she used to play: what she would give up for just one more minute with him. To say how much she loved him, a chance to say goodbye.

"Want some of my fries?" her boss's voice jolted her out of her reverie.

"No, thanks." Caitlin looked out of the window at Martin Stein's house. "Why would he come back here?"

"Because this is his home. I don't mean the actual house. I mean Clarissa. She's his home. We all want to go home again. You know, where we feel safe. Where we feel loved. Ronnie's your home."

Caitlin shook her head. "Not anymore."

"Remember what I told you on your first day at S.T.A.R. Labs?"

"'A scientist's work is never finished.'"

"'A scientist's work is never finished.' Well, my work did this to Ronnie and did this to Martin Stein. But it's not finished, and it won't be until we bring them both home. On my life, I promise you that."

A flash of light made them both turn, and they saw the familiar outline of Ronnie surrounded by flames flying above the house.

"So I'm assuming you have the Allens on speed dial?" asked Dr Wells.

…..

"Ok, I'm on my way," said Sophie, hanging up. She raced towards Clarissa's house. Just then her breath caught in her throat and she nearly stalled to a stop. There, right there in front of her, was the man in the yellow suit with red lightning. The man Barry had told her about. The man who had killed her mother. The sight of him was like a punch to the stomach. She made a split second decision and gave chase. It was a few seconds before he saw her and when he did her blood turned to ice in her veins. His eyes glowed red. He gave her a small smirk then pulled ahead with an extra burst of speed. Dash did the same, anger fuelling her. She managed to keep pace with the man in yellow for a few seconds then - confident in her own ability - jumped, drew back her fist and punched him in the face. He was startled for a split second, then grabbed her fist and used her momentum against her. The two of them flew through the air in a flash of red and lilac lightning, until they crashed into the wall of the Central City Police Department.

All the air was knocked out of Sophie, and she clutched her side. The man in yellow stood up and winked at her. "I've been waiting for this a long time...Dash." She was too exhausted to reply, but gave an anguished cry and blindly launched herself at him. The pair struck up fighting again, chasing each other and taking punches whenever they could. Eventually they crashed through the doors to the CCPD and Sophie used the temporary distraction to push the man into one of the desks. He juddered to a stop and lost the lighting surrounding him, no longer using superspeed. Sophie caught her breath, realisation dawning on her. Everybody was staring at them, and she was in a very dangerous position. Joe caught her eye, but in that instant the man in yellow lept forward and grabbed the taser in her foster dad's holster and pushed it against her side.

Sophie's muscles refused to obey her and she sank to the ground, pain racking her body. Before she could react, the other speedster had gone and Joe was carrying her into an interrogation room. He gently placed her on a chair and locked the door.

"I'm fine," she mumbled.

"You are far from it, but that is not my concern. What the hell were you thinking, going after him on your own?"

Feeling the beginnings of a headache, Sophie managed to muster enough strength to say, "remember two seconds ago when you caught me? I need you to-" Her eyes closed and she would have fallen face first onto the floor had Joe not thrust an arm out.

He carried her into his police car and turned on the siren, making a beeline for S.T.A.R. Labs. On his way he called Dr Wells to make sure he would be there to meet them.

When he got there he was practically rugby-tackled by Barry. "What happened to her?" he demanded, as Caitlin and Cisco attached the unconscious girl to some high-tech medical equipment. Dr Wells entered and did a double-take at the sight of Sophie, wasting no time in checking her pulse and blood pressure.

Joe tapped the side of the hospital bed nervously. "She went after the man in yellow then he tasered her. She fainted, and I brought her straight here," he explained.

Dr Wells examined some graphs on the computer. "She's in a bad state, but you did the right thing."

The heart monitor flatlined and let out a shrill beep and Sophie began seizing.

"What's happening?" shouted Joe over the din.

Caitlin tried to hold her down. "She's going into cardiac arrest," she said frantically, typing on her tablet. "There's a defibrillator in her suit. And...clear." Sophie's entire body lurched and the seizure began to subside. She was still shaking, and her pulse irregular.

"Hit her again, 400 joules," ordered Dr Wells calmly.

Caitlin obliged, and Sophie gasped and rolled onto her side, panting.

Barry visibly relaxed and hugged Joe. "She's alive," he said, tearful with relief.

Sophie weakly lay back and smiled at them all. "You're not losing me that easily."

They all laughed, but the room didn't lose its sombre air.

"The man in yellow," began Barry. "What did he say?"

"'I've been waiting for this for a long time," whispered Sophie.

Her brother nodded slowly. "OK, you get some rest."

Closing her eyes, Sophie moved into a more comfortable position and allowed herself to drift off to sleep. But it was only a few minutes before that terrible distorted voice echoed in her ears and images of those red eyes burned themselves into her eyes. She woke up screaming and drenched in sweat, clutching the sides of the bed for dear life.

"Shh, it's alright," said Dr Wells quietly, wheeling himself closer to the bed and rubbing her back. Gradually the young girl relaxed and leant on him for support. "Everything is alright. Did you have a nightmare?"

She nodded into his shoulder, breathing slowing. "Why are you still here?"

"I wanted to make sure you were alright. You had quite the traumatic experience."

Sophie lay back down. "Will you stay with me till I fall asleep?"

Dr Wells stroked her hair. "Of course."

This time when she fell asleep she didn't toss and turn, and when Dr Wells was satisfied she wasn't going to wake up he wheeled himself to a familiar patch of wall and opened the panel. Once he was inside he stood up from his wheelchair and pocketed his glasses. "Gideon," he said.

The wall in front of him lit up and the computerised face greeted him cheerfully, "good day Dr Wells."

"Yes it is Gideon. Bring up my log please. March 2015. Barry continues to get faster and Sophie, well, she still has a long way to go. The future is coming and it looks like there's still a lot to learn."

…..

Sophie woke up slowly, disorientated. Where am I? Oh, right. S.T.A.R. Labs. That explains the headache. She groaned and rubbed her head.

"Here you go," said Caitlin, handing her a glass of water and a painkiller. "You'll probably be feeling quite rough for the next few days."

"Where is everybody?" asked Sophie.

"Cisco around here somewhere, Barry and Iris are at the West residence and Dr Wells is-"

"Right here. Good morning Sophie. How are you feeling?" He seamlessly interrupted Caitlin who, Sophie was sure, had probably been expecting him to enter at that precise moment. In fact, they might have rehearsed it or something insane like that. No, Sophie. Be realistic.

She dragged her thoughts back to their conversation. "I've been better."

Her hair was blown into her face by Barry arriving and brandishing a phone. "Sophie, you're awake!"

"A very astute observation."

Dr Wells frowned disapprovingly at her.

"Sorry. Bar, what's with the phone?"

He glanced down at the phone in surprise as if he had forgotten he was holding it. "Oh right yeah. Uh, Oliver called and he needs our help with a case, but he was being super secretive and not telling us what it is."

Sophie laughed. "That sounds like the Oliver we know and love. Let's take a field trip to Starling City!" She stood up, but her legs buckled under her and she landed awkwardly in her brother's arms. "Totally meant to do that!" she said as Barry carried her back to the bed.

"Can you two give me a minute with Miss Allen?" asked Dr Wells. Barry and Caitlin glanced at each other and made themselves scarce.

"Now, Sophie," he began, clasping his hands. "I don't mean to worry you, but the aftereffects of this excursion followed by the taser seem to be a lot stronger than anything we've seen before. You're a smart woman, you know it's serious so here's what I propose: you go to Starling City with your brother to help Mr Queen, but keep in touch and tell me if you experience anything...out of the ordinary."

She rolled her eyes. "Out of the ordinary is our modus operandi, you'll have to be more specific."

"You know what I mean. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes."

 **AN - sorry it's been so long. I wasn't too sure about this chapter, but everything should start making more sense next chapter. Thanks to highlander348, Stargirl720, Immortalman18 and kindleflame5 for the reviews :)**


	17. Chapter 16

"Ok, see you in a few." Barry hung up the phone. "Oliver and Felicity are meeting us outside the nightclub Thea owns, Verdant."

"Do you know where that is?" asked Sophie.

"I think so. Hopefully people won't think the S.T.A.R. Labs van sitting outside a nightclub isn't too strange."

"Might be bad for business, though," Sophie pointed out. They parked outside the nightclub and got out of the van. Oliver, Felicity and Thea came out of the club.

"You couldn't have gone with a more conspicuous form of transport?" asked Oliver.

"Barry doesn't have a car, and Joe uses his in the police," explained Sophie.

"You could have just run," suggested Felicity. Everybody stared at her. "Well, they could."

Barry put his arm around his sister. "We considered it, but Soph wasn't feeling too great."

Concern flashed over Oliver's face. "If she's ill you two didn't need to come."

Waving a hand, Sophie shrugged. "I'm fine, really."

"Ok, it's your call." Felicity led the two Allen siblings into Verdant. They followed her into the basement where she paused dramatically before turning on the lights to reveal a spacious modern room containing computers, weapons and Oliver's Arrow suit on a stand.

Sophie excitedly hit her brother on the arm. "This is so cool," she squeaked.

Barry pulled his arm away from her. "Stop pummelling me!"

She pulled a face. "Sorry. But it is really cool. Is this where y'all fight crime?"

Rolling his eyes, Oliver sighed. "This is our lair. Where else are we gonna do it?"

Felicity sat down at the computer. "So, here's why we called you. There's this metahuman, as of yet unnamed, that seems to be able to blow things up. I mean not, like, with a bomb like you'd expect – with his bare hands." She made an accompanying hand gesture with explosion sound effects.

Oliver put his hand on her shoulder. "What Felicity is trying to say, is that there is a metahuman with short-range explosion capabilities-"

"And we would gratefully accept your help," finished Felicity, smiling at Oliver.

Barry and Sophie exchanged a glance. "We'd love to, right Barry?" asked Sophie, elbowing him.

"Oh my word, why do you keep beating me up?" asked her brother, rubbing his arm.

Thea laughed, and Sophie smiled at her.

Oliver cleared his throat. "The metahuman, James Cavallon, is 19 and goes to the local college. Thea has seen him at her club a few times."

Thea showed them a blurry and dark picture of James on her phone. "It's the best I could get without seeming suspicious."

Barry and Sophie frowned at the picture. She shrugged, "I wouldn't recognise him from that. Do you have any ideas about taking him down?"

Thea put her phone away and shared a look with Oliver. Clearing her throat, she said "we do have an idea, but…"

"If there's a problem-" began Oliver.

"No, I'm willing to do it. Uh, James has been seen a few times consulting a drug dealer outside the club." She took a deep breath. "I used to use, so I know how it goes and was thinking I could pretend to be a dealer and get him outside but we weren't sure what to do afterwards. You know, with his powers and all."

"Which is why we called you," added Felicity.

Without any hesitation, Sophie nodded. "I'll call Cisco and ask his advice."

As she stepped into the corner to make her phone call, Oliver leant closer to Barry. "Are you sure she's ok?"

"Yeah, no she's fine. Dr Wells said to contact him if anything happens," said Barry.

Oliver pulled a face, but quickly composed himself again.

"What?" asked Barry.

Nervously scratching the back of his head, Oliver said "It's about Dr Wells. There's something…off about him."

"He is a little…ok a lot mysterious but Sophie and I trust him," argued Barry. "He saved our lives!"

Oliver held up his hands in surrender. "Ok, ok. I was just telling you what I thought."

Sophie hung up her phone and came back over to them. "I've spoken to Cisco. He says the metahuman, we are calling him Reactor, seems to have control over part of the electromagnetic spectrum – probably Gamma rays – and has a few ideas on stopping him. He really liked the sound of your plan, Thea."

Thea smiled. "Awesome, thank you so much."

Sophie nodded in acknowledgement. "My pleasure. But you see, we are going undercover and I really have nothing suitable to wear…"

…..

Sophie and Thea browsed the clothes racks in the local department store. Sophie held up a knee-length turquoise dress. "How about this one?"

"Definitely. And it's the same colour as your…you know." She lowered her voice. "Supersuit."

Sophie grinned. She fondly smoothed down the fabric and looked at herself in the mirror. "I don't think I've ever worn something like this before."

Thea came to stand next to her in the mirror. "I used to, in my rebellious stage. Before all of this. Saving people beats partying."

Out of the corner of her eye, Sophie noticed a dress. It was dark red, with a sweetheart neckline and a long, layered skirt. "You should wear this one!" She held it up to Thea. "It's perfect for you!"

The older woman took the dress and admired it. "It does look nice, doesn't it?" She folded it over her arm.

"Check this out." Sophie pointed to a rack of suits. "If we got Barry involved, he could wear this one!" She gestured to a ghastly red and green suit with a tessellating yellow pattern.

Thea laughed. "I can't imagine Ollie wearing anything remotely adventurous."

Sophie shrugged. "Older brothers seem to feel the need to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and be responsible for every little thing."

"I know," agreed Thea. "There are times when I think Ollie doesn't know how to step away from something. He feels like it is his duty to solve every problem and save every person."

"And you tell him he's not alone," continued Sophie. "But he refuses to listen."

"Barry isn't alone," said Thea. "He has you."

"And Oliver has you."

Thea laughed and nodded. "Yeah. They're lucky men."

After a few seconds, Sophie glanced at the dress in her arms. "Ready to roll?"

"Absolutely. Let's do this."

…..

Sophie finished adding the finishing touches to her eye shadow and followed Thea out into the club. It was packed full of people with music blaring out of the speakers and dark apart from the coloured spotlights roaming the dance floor. She tapped Thea on the arm. "Can you see him?" she shouted over the din.

Thea shook her head. Together they made their way towards the bar, staying close to avoid separation. Every few seconds somebody bumped into Sophie, but she didn't bother apologising considering they would never hear her. Once they got to the bar she gratefully slid onto a stool. "I just remembered why I don't like parties," she said, tugging at her dress.

Thea indicated with her eyes to a young man nearby. Leaning close to Sophie's ear, she whispered "The one in the blue top."

The younger girl followed her gaze and nodded. "You sure you're up for this?"

"Now or never." She walked purposefully up to him, and whispered something in his ear. His eyes widened as she smiled at him, and James shrugged at his friends and followed Thea out like a lovesick puppy. Before she closed the back door behind her, she threw one last glance at Sophie and winked.

After a few seconds, Sophie slid off her bar stool and once again braved the throng of people. Trying not to stand on anybody's feet, she made it to the back door and slipped out. She was just in time to see James throw a punch at Thea who then ducked and took his knees out from under him. He hit the ground, but did a commando roll and stood up.

"Dash, hold him!" shouted Thea, running behind the club to change into her vigilante clothes.

Sophie dove forward and got him into a headlock, vibrating herself at superspeed so he wouldn't be able to fight back. A few seconds later Thea returned dressed in her red and black leather clothes and pointing her bow at Reactor. Sophie released him, but he thrust out his hands. The concrete next to her exploded and she leapt on top of the dumpster, unscathed. He aimed one hand either side of Sophie's head and fired. She ducked, jumped off the dumpster and landed behind him, smirking.

"What? How did you-" Thea took aim and shot him in the leg. The metahuman crumpled, clutching his leg. For a split second, Sophie hesitated at the sight of the blood staining his trousers. But in that split second, Reactor pulled a syringe out of his pocked and plunged it into Sophie's arm.

The whole world seemed to slow down, and when he blew up the wall behind Thea, it took a few seconds to register. Her limbs felt like they were turning to concrete. Against her will, her eyes started to close. Thea started forwards and dropped her bow. Reactor grabbed it and took aim. As the arrow left the bow, Sophie knew she could never get to it on time. Fear welled up inside her and she focused all her energy on the arrow. Nothing else mattered.

The arrow flew past Thea and thudded into the wall somewhere behind her. She looked down at herself in disbelief. Am I alive? She looked at Sophie who sagged with relief. Enraged, James pointed his hand at her, but Sophie quickly shook herself to burn off the sedative and, using her speed, picked up James and deposited him in the dumpster, closing the lid.

Dusting off her hands, Sophie said "I think that was a successful day's work. I'll call Barry and ask him to bring the lab van round."

Thea gestured to the dumpster. "Can he get out of there?"

Sophie shook her head. "Not with an injured leg. And Gamma rays can't get through lead."

"Dumpsters aren't made of lead," Thea pointed out.

"This one is. I asked Cisco to make it and bring it over while we were shopping."

Thea raised her eyebrows. "That's…impressive."

Sophie smiled. "Thanks.

…..

"My father said that Reactor is safely locked up, thanks to you two," said Laurel, smiling at Barry and Sophie.

Felicity glanced worriedly at Laurel. "Are you sure he can't get out? I mean, he does have powers and all."

Oliver cleared his throat. "I had Cisco make some…adjustments to his cell."

Barry put on his jacket. "As always, it was a pleasure working with you all and hopefully we can do this again soon."

Sophie hugged Thea, and then followed her brother out. "Nice to see you all. I hope no more metas attack your city!"

The Allen siblings got in the lab van and Barry began the drive back to Central City. Sophie listened to the radio and tried to figure out what on earth had happened when Reactor had been about to shoot Thea. There was no way she had moved. Somehow, she had moved it with her mind. Worryingly, that seemed to be the most logical reason.

"Are you ok?" asked Barry.

"Huh?"

"You've been uncharacteristically quiet the entire journey and I'm getting worried."

Sophie watched the road flying past her window. "Something happened. Something…different. Reactor injected me with a sedative and tried to shoot Thea. I moved the arrow. I saved her."

Barry looked at her. "Are you sure he didn't just miss?"

She shook her head. "He didn't miss. It was me. I felt it. Dr Wells told me to call him if anything out of the ordinary happened, but I wanted to tell you first."

Her brother mulled the information over in his head. "I think Dr Wells will definitely want to know. If he can't fathom out how this happened, at least he'll have some advice." Barry adjusted his grip on the wheel.

"Yeah. Thank you, Barry." She pressed dial on her phone and took a deep breath. Sophie Allen's life had just got a whole lot stranger.

 **AN - hi everybody! Sorry for the wait, I will try and get the next chapter up as soon as possible. Thanks to mangagirl1218, highlander348 and stargirl720 for the reviews.**


	18. Chapter 17

Sophie sat down and opened her diary, pen poised and ready.

My name is Sophie Allen and I am the fastest girl alive. When I was a child I saw my mother killed by something impossible and my father went to prison for her murder. Then an accident made me the impossible. With the help of our family and friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, my brother and I fight crime and find other metahumans like ourselves. But now things are changing in ways we could never have predicted and not only are we on the trail of the Reverse Flash, but it turned out everything is a lot more complicated than we first thought.

Iris knocked on the doorframe of Sophie's room. "Can I come in?"

She quickly put her diary away. "Sure." Sophie moved up so Iris could sit next to her on the bed. She had told Dr Wells about what had happened in Starling City, and he had given her the evening off. She'd asked him to keep her possible new powers between the two of them and Barry. Of course, Iris had clocked instantly that something was up.

"I'm guessing your spontaneous roadtrip wasn't just to say hi to Oliver?" she asked.

Sophie smiled. "No. He needed my and Barry's help with a metahuman."

"Will I be writing an article on that later today?"

"It wasn't that exciting. But while we were there…"

Concern flashed over Iris's face. "What happened? Is everyone alright?"

"Everyone is fine. It's just… Long story short: the man who killed my mother tasered me and now I have telekinesis." To prove her point, Sophie looked at the pen she had been using and it levitated about two inches above the bed.

Iris's eyes widened. "Wow, that is really cool."

Sophie nodded enthusiastically. "Dr Wells said tomorrow we can do all the tests and stuff. I just wanted to tell you first. You know, get a familial perspective before the science takes over."

"You said it was the man who killed your mother. How….how do you know it was him?"

Sophie took a breath. "The red and yellow lightning we saw that night. This man, the Reverse Flash, has red lightning when he runs. He's a speedster too, and he acted like Barry and I knew him." She lay down on the bed.

"Maybe he was referring to that night?" Iris moved so she was lying next to Sophie.

The younger girl shook her head, staring at the ceiling. "He knew more. Like, about our powers and everything."

Iris frowned. "He might have been, sort of, following you guys since then?" she offered.

Suddenly, Sophie sat up and looked at Iris, eyes wide in excitement and worry. "There was red _and_ yellow lightning. Just, hear me out ok? There could have been two speedsters there that night. Him and somebody else! And the other one was the person who moved Barry and me away!"

Iris sat up as well, warming to the idea. "And the first speedster, the Reverse Flash was it?"

Sophie nodded.

"The Reverse Flash made the second speedster choose between you two and your mother."

Sophie stood and started pacing around the room, "right, because he has some sort of animosity for the Allens." She pensively bit one of her nails.

Iris noticed the familiar behaviour instantly.

"You thought of something else, didn't you?"

"It's just, all the speedsters we know of have different coloured lightning. The Reverse Flash's is red, Barry's is yellow and mine is purple. So, there is a slight possibility the second speedster has some relation to Barry. Heck, he could even be Future Barry! And the reason he saved us is because we need to be alive for him to be there in the first place. Some sort of temporal loop?" she winced. "All this stuff is making my head hurt."

Iris smiled sympathetically. "I think it's probably best if you wait until tomorrow and discuss it with the people who have degrees in this sort of thing."

"Yeah." Sophie hugged Iris. "Thank you. For everything."

"Hey, you're my sister. What are family for if you can't discuss time travel and superpowers with them?"

…..

Sophie took a deep breath. The drone flew towards her and she watched closely as the missile was launched. She focused on the missile and cleared everything else out of her mind. Slowly, she pictured the missile moving away from her. Then, in one sweeping motion, it swung to her left and missed her completely.

"Good job!" called Cisco from where he was stood with Caitlin and Dr Wells.

Sophie gave them a thumbs-up. "Is that all you got?" she shouted, tossing her hair out of her face.

"Not by a long shot," replied Cisco, typing on his tablet. "Let's try two drones. See if you can cause them some damage."

"You got it." Sophie flexed her fingers and watched as the two drones headed towards her. She froze the first, then the second. For good measure, she decided to send them crashing into each other. There was an almighty crash and flames roared, Sophie could feel the heat from where she was stood. As the drones descended in a ball of smouldering metal, she winced. "Oops?"

"Oops?" repeated Dr Wells, raising one eyebrow.

"I didn't mean for it to be so…kaboom."

Cisco smiled. "No, it's good. Kaboom is good. So long as, you know, nobody gets hurt. Or it's the enemy's drones going kaboom." Dr Wells have him a look. "I'm going to stop talking now." Caitlin patted him sympathetically on the arm.

"Right, Sophie. Let's try once more and work on your aim. Try and deflect the missile back at the drone this time."

"Let's rock and roll." She focused on the missile coming towards her, but couldn't move it. Her heart rate increased and she frantically tried to get a mental hold on the missile, but it was no good. It was about five feet away from her.

Nearby, Dr Wells slightly moved one of his feet off the footrest of his wheelchair. Come on, he thought.

Without even thinking, Sophie used her superspeed to dodge out of the way as it crashed to the ground. She stared in horror at the flames licking the ground.

"Sophie?" asked Dr Wells.

"Present," she replied, waving at them from the other side of the remains of the missile.

"Are you alright?" Dr Wells asked.

Sophie materialised next to him. "Never better. Can we try that one again? I know I can do better this time!"

The scientist shook his head. "You have had these powers for two days and that was an incredibly close call. I'd advise we leave it here for the time being."

"But Dr Wells-"

"Leave it," Caitlin whispered to Sophie. "When Dr Wells makes up his mind about something you can't change it."

Sophie nodded in submission and followed the others inside. As they got indoors, her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Where are you?" asked her brother.

"Harrison Wells' Home for Waifs, Strays and Superheroes."

"Where?"

"I'm at S.T.A.R. Labs."

Barry laughed. "Can you swing by the precinct later? I need your help with something."

"Sure. I'll be there in ten." She hung up and opened her mouth to tell the others what Barry had said, but was cut off by an all-too-familiar voice echoing throughout the lab.

"Come out with your hands up and nobody will get hurt."

The four of them shared a look.

"Hartley," growled Dr Wells.

"Long time no see," he replied nonchalantly over the tannoy.

"What do you want this time?" asked Dr Wells angrily.

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Sophie.

"Go on, little girl," said Hartley patronisingly.

"He got the Flash's molecular scans last time, now he's come for mine."

"She's quick, I'll give you that." Hartley chuckled slightly at his own pun. "But we'll see just how quick she is."

The entire room seemed to shudder and Sophie watched as a sickening crack spread across one of the glass walls separating the Cortex and the work room. Right next to where Cisco was standing. She ran as fast as she could and moved her friend out of the way of the shattering glass.

"Very good," smirked Hartley as he entered the room.

"How about we take this outside?" asked Sophie.

"You read my mind," replied Hartley.

"Meet you out there," she replied, quickly changing into her Dash suit.

…..

"If he has come directly to confront you it must be because he feels he can beat you. Perhaps he upgraded his sonic gloves," Dr Wells wondered aloud in Dash's earpiece. "See if you can get a look at them, there may be a way to remotely disable them."

"The sonic gloves," whispered Dash, an idea forming in her mind. It was risky, but she couldn't see any other options. She raced away from Hartley and began zig-zagging across the airfield. Behind her she could just feel the resonance of his sonic gloves. She stopped abruptly and the ground beneath her exploded in an array of dust. She fell down, clutching her leg, and could see Hartley's triumphant smile as he raised his hands for one final blast. Showtime. He thrust his arms forward, and froze. He looked down in confusion at his bare hands.

"What the…"

Sophie indicated with her head to where his sonic gloves were hovering next to him. "Looking for those?" She couldn't help but smile at his confused expression when he laid eyes on them. As he reached out for them she moved them further away.

"You have got to be kidding me," said Hartley.

Sophie mentally threw the sonic gloves away and stood up. "Let's finish this the old-fashioned way."

Sophie rugby tackled him to the ground at superspeed and punched him in the jaw. That felt way more satisfying than it should have, she thought. Oh well. "Dr Wells, he's down," she said. Through her earpiece she heard two people high-five, presumably Caitlin and Cisco.

…..

"This isn't over!" shouted Hartley, hammering on the glass of his cell in the Pipeline.

"No prison can hold me, blah blah blah. Heard it all before, pal!" said Cisco, closing the door.

"That was some fantastic work today, Sophie," commented Dr Wells.

"Yeah, you ruled!" smiled Cisco.

"All in a day's work," Sophie shrugged. "Oh, darn. I was supposed to go and meet Barry. I'll see you guys later." She vanished in a flash of purple lightning.

 **AN - hi everyone! Thanks to Mangagirl1218 for the review and highlander348 for the review and suggestions. Next chapter should be up sometime in the next two weeks, featuring the return of the Reverse Flash.**


	19. Chapter 18

"What did you want my help with?" asked Sophie.

Barry jumped a mile high and dropped the file he was holding.

Sophie laughed. "Sorry."

"Warn a person when you're about to do that!"

Sophie sat on his desk and shook her head. "Not my style." Barry thrust the file at her, and she looked up at him. "What's this?"

"Read it."

Using her superspeed, Sophie read the entire thing in two seconds flat. "That's….really not good."

"Joe and I investigated it while you were busy at S.T.A.R. Labs. He got me to write the report and I really thought you should know."

"No kidding." She looked down at the document in her hands again. It was a case report for a man in yellow breaking into Mercury Labs and trying to steal a tachyon device. It described the crime taking place on a floor with highly secured vaults, and a witness said he was looking for something. Badly enough to kill for it. "What are we going to do?"

Barry shrugged. "Joe suggested we get Dr Wells involved and go from there."

…..

"Mercury was one of S.T.A.R. Labs' major competitors until our little setback, and then it catapulted to the forefront led by Dr Christina McGee, brilliant but egocentric physicist. Dr McGee has secured half a billion dollars in private funding to develop, and I quote, "prototypes for the technology of the future. Tina's messing with tachyons, superluminal particles," explained Dr Wells.

"So what could someone do with one of those-" Joe made a vague hand gesture.

"Tachyons," supplied Cisco.

"Thank you," said Joe.

Dr Wells shrugged. "Well, I don't know. Become invincible? If you could devise a matrix stable enough to harness their power, you could travel faster than light."

"So he wants this superpowered device. What are we going to do about it?" asked Sophie.

"I'm glad you asked," said Cisco. "This is where you come in."

"You have something the Reverse Flash doesn't. Telekinesis," said Dr Wells. He gestured to one of the computer screens. "When the Reverse Flash tasered you, it caused a mutation in your DNA. Possibly activated some sort of latent gene, or possibly something more like the effects of the Accelerator explosion. We don't have the technology to investigate it further at the moment."

"So there's no way I could get telekinesis?" asked Barry, frowning at the scan on the screen.

"It's highly unlikely. We would have to recreate the exact conditions in which Sophie was tasered. The speed, the electric charge, the adrenaline, and even then it is not guaranteed since she is much younger than you and still growing."

Caitlin nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense."

"Here's the plan. We get the tachyon device and use it to lure the Reverse Flash here. Then we trap him," said Dr Wells.

"Trap him how?" asked Cisco.

Dr Wells smiled. "The wonderful thing about force fields, Mr Ramon, is that they are impervious to speed."

"I like where this is going," grinned Sophie.

…..

"Ready?" called Cisco.

"As I'll ever be," muttered Barry. His sister laughed and brushed her hair out of her face, squinting in the bright sunlight.

"Are you sure training them together is a good idea?" asked Caitlin.

"They will be going up against a speedster, so the best way to train for that would be to go up against a speedster, in this case each other. Unless you happen to know of another friendly speedster, Dr Snow?" She shook her head. "I thought not. Cisco!" Dr Wells called, shielding his eyes.

"Ready and waiting, Dr Wells!" replied Cisco.

"Here's what you are going to do. Cisco will fire the missile at the two of you, I want Sophie to move it away from you while Barry races after it. Depending on how well that goes, we'll see what's next."

Sophie flexed her fingers. "Let's do this!"

The missile flew towards them, and Sophie imagined a barrier hitting it square-on and deflecting it back the way it came. Barry watched as it began moving away from him, faster than before. His feet pounded the solid earth as he raced towards it, but not fast enough. He couldn't catch up with it. In his earpiece, he could hear Dr Wells. "Run, Barry, run! Breathe. Breathe. Feel the air. Feel that wind on your face. Feel the ground, your feet lifting you up, pushing you forward, and the lightning Barry, feel the lightning. Feel its power. Its electricity pumping through your veins, crackling through you, traveling to every nerve in your body, like a shock. You're no longer you now. You're part of something greater. You're part of a speed-force. It's yours."

Barry caught the missile and pressed the button to deactivate it before it blew up. "Great job!" said Sophie, fistbumping him.

"That was fantastic work, both of you," congratulated Dr Wells. "Next item on the agenda, Caitlin and Cisco begin work on the forcefield and the Allens and I will procure the tachyon device."

…..

In the bunker, Cisco was frowning at a piece of equipment.

"How's it going?" asked Caitlin, heels clicking on the floor as she walked over to him.

Cisco gestured to the structure he was building. "I think we can fashion an electronic barrier, right? We set up a ton of super capacitors. We smooth out the inflection points, and voila a kick-ass force field to trap the Reverse Flash! And we put the tachyon device here to function as a lure. As soon as he is in – blam! Force field up, no escape."

"It could certainly work," said Caitlin.

…..

As Sophie, Barry and Dr Wells entered Mercury Labs, they were greeted by an assistant and led to Dr McGee's office.

"Thank you for seeing us, Dr McGee," said Dr Wells cordially.

"I assume this is about last night's break-in?" Dr McGee asked in a strong English accent.

Dr Wells tilted his head to the side. "Well, yes and no."

"That's usually how things are with you, aren't they, Harrison?" sighed Dr McGee.

Sophie and Barry shared a small smile.

"We believe that whoever broke in was after one of your prototypes," explained Dr Wells.

"You'll have to narrow that down. We have literally hundreds of projects in development."

"One containing tachyonic particles," said Dr Wells.

"We've had encouraging success with tachyons, yes, but there's still a significant gap between our prototype and any real-life application."

"We were hoping you would lend us your prototype to use as a lure."

Behind her back, Sophie crossed her fingers.

Dr McGee did not look at all convinced, so Barry stepped in. "Dr McGee, we will return your prototype to you as soon as we are finished with it."

"You know nobody wants to ensure the future's technology more than me," added Dr Wells.

"I appreciate the your concerns, gentlemen, but Mercury is quite capable of protecting its own assets. Good luck with your manhunt." She stood up to dismiss them but Sophie raised her hand.

"Dr McGee?" she asked.

"Yes, Miss…"

"Allen. Sophie Allen. We wouldn't ask for this prototype if we didn't know it was absolutely essential in apprehending this criminal. Consider it this way, if you lend it to us then Dr Wells owes you one."

Dr McGee sighed. "Very well. But I want it returned to me in one piece when this is all over."

…..

Everything was in place. Joe, Barry, Sophie and Dr Wells could just see the tachyon device within the barrier of the forcefield generator in the darkened room. Cisco and Caitlin were watching from the command centre in the Cortex. All they had to do was wait for the Reverse Flash to turn up. The atmosphere was so tense you could almost taste it.

"I'm sending out another pulse," said Cisco, pressing a button.

"Are you certain this trap will work?" asked Joe.

Cisco nodded. "I've sent up at least three charges into open satellite. If anyone's looking tachyonic particles, they'll know we got them."

A split second later there was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it flash. The Reverse Flash was in the force field.

"Let's see what we caught," said Dr Wells. "Cisco? Lights."

"Sure thing, Dr Wells." The room was illuminated and they could see the man in yellow, slightly distorted by the glassy sheen of the force field.

"Detective West, would you like to read him his rights?" offered Dr Wells. Joe pulled out his gun and approached the force field.

"Joe, what are you doing?" asked Barry.

"Getting some answers. All those years ago you murdered Nora Allen. I want to know why. Why?"

The Reverse Flash ignored his question, instead turning to the scientist. "Dr Wells, we meet at last." His voice was distorted and deep, each syllable drawn out.

"What do you want with the tachyonic particles?" asked Dr Wells.

"My goals are beyond your understanding."

"Oh, I don't know, I'm a pretty smart guy. I knew you were exceptionally fast, so any trap we manufactured would have to be invisible. I knew your cells could repair themselves at extraordinary speeds, so you could withstand the damage this is doing to your body right now." He moved his wheelchair closer to the forcefield and clasped his hands.

In the Cortex, Cisco looked in horror at the data on the screen. "The super capacitors the containment field is fluctuating. They need to get out of there now!"

"The reason I know all this is because your powers are almost exactly like those of The Flash."

"Oh, I'm not like The Flash at all. Some would say I'm the reverse."

The two of them were so wrapped up in the conversation that it was as if they had forgotten the other people in the room.

"Dr Wells, evacuate! Get out of there now! Dr Wells!" shouted Caitlin.

The room went dark, and when the lights flickered on again Dr Wells was within the forcefield, being pummelled like a punching bag by the Reverse Flash.

"Cisco, turn off the barrier!" shouted Caitlin.

"If I turn it off, that thing's gonna get out," protested Cisco.

"Cisco, he's gonna kill Wells!" shouted Joe, picking up a spanner and attacking the nearest piece of machinery with it. Sophie let out a strangled cry and clutched Barry's arm.

The forcefield went down and the tachyon device was gone. Dr Wells lay on the ground, bleeding but alive.

Joe turned around and saw the Reverse Flash behind him. "Don't move, or I will shoot."

The next thing Joe knew, the Reverse Flash had him in a chokehold against the wall. "I warned you not to hunt me," said the speedster in that awful voice. And he was gone. Barry and Sophie stood completely still, too stunned to move.

"Everybody back to the Cortex now!" ordered Dr Wells.

When they had all assembled, he said, "We were close, I'll admit that. But this is not over. We will find the man in yellow."

"But he has the tachywhatsit now," said Joe.

Dr Wells nodded. "He does. On my honour I give you this, Joe. We will find him."

Sophie tugged at one of her sleeves awkwardly. "Dr Wells? Can I ask you something?"

He smiled at her. "Of course, Sophie." He moved his wheelchair into the work room as she followed him. "What's on your mind?"

"The night my mom was killed, there was red and yellow lightning. Do you suppose there is a chance this Reverse Flash was there?"

He pensively took off his glasses. "It is certainly a possibility. But did he even know who you were then?"

"I don't know. None of this makes any sense!" She sighed in frustration. "This man has thrown himself into my life acting like he knows me and…"

Dr Wells put his glasses back on. "At this point I suggest you take a break and go and maybe speak to Iris? I believe her lunch break is soon."

Sophie visibly relaxed. "Thank you."

"My pleasure. Caitlin, Cisco and I will mull this over in your absence."

…..

Sophie sat with Iris in Jitters, staring into her hot chocolate.

"I don't need superpowers to tell me something is up with you," commented Iris.

"I trust you have heard about what happened at Mercury Labs?"

Iris nodded.

"It was the Reverse Flash. Not only that, but Dr Wells suggested that when he tasered me that's how I got telekinesis. It's too much for one afternoon. And speaking of Dr Wells, he seemed to know an awful lot about my powers, and he was really reluctant to speak about the night my mom died."

Iris shifted into a more comfortable position. "My sort of advisor at the paper is always teaching me lessons, tricks of the trade, how to get a good story, and one of the things he's repeatedly telling me is to follow your hunch, see where it leads."

"Sounds like good advice."

"Yeah, it is. I mean, a lot of strange things have been happening in Central City this past year. You, the Flash, the Burning Man, people going missing. Dr Wells is not known for being an open book. Somebody at work told me he was there at Stagg's office the night that Stagg went missing. Sophie, in your heart of hearts, do you think it's possible that there's more to Harrison than people have been led to believe?"

…..

"All right, Cisco, I'm heading home," called Caitlin on her way out of the Cortex. When he didn't respond she tried again. "Cisco? All right, fine, I will watch every episode of The Walking Dead with you." She entered the work room where he was staring at his laptop screen.

"What do you think of Dr Wells?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" asked Caitlin, frowning.

"I mean, do you think he's capable of doing something bad?"

"Ever since the particle accelerator exploded, there's always someone who's got it in for Dr Wells," Caitlin pointed out.

Cisco shook his head. "No, no, it's more than that. Joe said that maybe Dr Wells was somehow involved in of Barry's Mother's death."

Caitlin took a step back. "That's absurd."

"Yeah, I know, and that's what I said, and we proved that that wasn't the case, but I'm just saying, some things aren't adding up. Like, look at this." He brought up a diagram of the force field from earlier. "When we trapped the Reverse Flash in the forcefield, he escaped because the containment system failed, but I checked that data three times, and the super-capacitors were still fully charged when he got out. The numbers don't add up, Caitlin. There's no reason that the containment system should have failed."

"I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation," said Caitlin, trying to convince herself as much as Cisco.

"One perfectly good explanation is that Wells did something to the trap."

"Are you suggesting that Dr Wells is in league with The Man in the Yellow Suit? We all saw that thing nearly kill him."

"Yeah, nearly."

"Cisco, what you're saying doesn't make any sense. That's crazy."

"Can you keep Wells out of S.T.A.R. Labs tomorrow morning?" Cisco asked quietly.


	20. Chapter 19

**AN - Hi everyone. Thanks to highlander348 for the review and suggestions. Just a warning, there is some potentially quite dark stuff coming up in this chapter but nobody gets hurt and it follows the plot of the show. Also, this chapter was going to be longer but I decided to split it into two, the next one will be up hopefully next week.**

Barry was sat at home watching TV when his phone rang. The familiar voice of Cisco informed him, "Emergency at the morgue."

Barry stopped off at S.T.A.R. Labs to change into his Flash suit then raced towards the morgue. On the way, he saw something next to him. It was a silhouette of himself. The two of them looked at each other in surprise and Barry skidded to a halt. Panting, he looked at his surroundings. Everything seemed normal.

A woman nearby shouted, "Taxi! Taxi! Oh, come on, I'm gonna be late!"

Taking a breath, Barry carried on towards the morgue.

"What do you see?" asked Cisco.

Barry looked at the floor. "A dead body."

"Barry, you're in a morgue. You're gonna have to be a little more specific than that."

"The coroner, he's dead."

At the sound of an approaching car, Barry changed into his regular clothes just in time to greet Joe and Eddie.

"What's with all the water? Did the sprinkler system go off or something?" asked Joe, looking at the puddle on the floor.

"No, I checked all the sprinklers. They're all intact. But look at this." Barry pointed to something solid nearer to the coroner's body.

"What is that, ice?" asked Joe.

Barry nodded. "The coroner has multiple impact bruises on his torso, all the size of a tennis ball. Judging by the amount of ice and water on the ground, I'm guessing he was killed by hail.

"Hail? In here? Do you think this was Snart?"

"No, his cold-gun couldn't have done this."

Eddie came over to them. "Joe, we got something. The Coroner's office just installed an automated dictation system. Listen to this."

He pressed play and they all heard a crackly recording of a voice begging, "Please, no more."

"I'll stop when you tell me Stop. Who killed him? I want a name." This was a second voice, more ferocious.

"I know that voice. That's Mardon," said Joe.

"Clyde Mardon's dead," Eddie pointed out.

"It's not Clyde Mardon. It's his brother, Mark," said Barry.

The first voice on the recording spoke again. "It was Detective West. He shot him. Detective Joe West killed your brother."

"He will pay for what he did," said Mark Mardon.

…..

"So Clyde Mardon has a brother?" asked Sophie. She hadn't been to the morgue because Dr Wells didn't want her to, instead he had asked for her help upgrading the system they used to speak on the comms. She was sat on the desk with her feet on one of the empty chairs.

"And both brothers survived the plane crash, and then the dark matter released from the particle accelerator explosion affects them both in virtually the same way," explained Dr Wells.

"Yeah, only Mark's powers seem to be a lot more precise," added Barry.

"To be able to control the weather like that, indoors? You'd have to be a Weather Wizard," said Cisco triumphantly. "Ooh, been waiting since week one to use that one." He took a sip of his slushy then winced and clutched his forehead.

"Trigeminal headache?" asked Caitlin.

"What?" Cisco looked at her through his fingers.

"Trigeminal headache. Brain freeze."

"Then why don't you just call it a brain freeze?" He shook his head as if to say 'this girl is insane'

"So I'm guessing you running around a twister in the opposite direction isn't gonna to do the trick this time?" asked Joe. Sophie and Barry shook their heads.

Cisco snapped his fingers. "I just remembered. During our run-in with Mardon, Clyde Mardon, I was tinkering with something to help attract unbound atmospheric electrons."

"Like a grounding mechanism?" asked Dr Wells.

"Yes, 'cause the only way that Mardon can control the weather is if he can tap into the atmosphere's natural electrical circuit, and if we take away that circuit, clear skies."

"Joe, we'll find Mardon. Don't worry," said Barry.

"I'm not worried at all," replied Joe. "I'll go see how Eddie's getting on with this investigation." He have Barry a quick smile before heading out of the Cortex.

"Well, he's taking being targeted by a revenge-seeking meta-human rather well, I must say," said Caitlin.

"Don't worry, Barry. Joe will be fine, I promise," Dr Wells reassured him.

Barry awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, no, I know. I actually wanted to talk to you about something else. Um look, last night, on my way to the morgue, I saw something."

"What'd you see?" asked Dr Wells. Sophie stood up and came to stand next to them, interest piqued.

"I was running and I turned and I saw myself. Or I don't know, another Flash running beside me."

"Interesting," mused the doctor.

"Yeah. What do you think it was?" asked Barry.

"Could be an optical illusion, a mirroring effect caused by wind shear and light, a speed mirage, if you will."

"It didn't seem like that. It was… He seemed real."

"I tell you what. Let's focus on finding Mardon, and once he's safely contained in The Pipeline, we'll investigate this."

Barry nodded gratefully.

…..

Caitlin looked at her boss across the table at Jitters. "You know, Dr Wells, I just I want to thank you again for all that you've done for Ronnie."

Dr Wells smiled. "One thank you will suffice, I'm sure." He took off his glasses and placed them on the table. "You know, Caitlin, if Cisco were to adjust the radial velocity parameters on the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite, we might be able to better detect the vortex of a forming storm, and if we could detect those air updrafts, no matter where they originate, no matter how small, we might be able to locate Mark Mardon."

Caitlin forced herself to speak in an enthusiastic tone. "That's a great idea."

Dr Wells spread his hands out. "So why don't we go to S.T.A.R. Labs and alert Cisco?"

Caitlin gestured to their drinks. "Let me just get these to-go." She took them to the counter and, as they were being poured into to-go cups, she turned around. Dr Wells was gone and his wheelchair was still at the table, empty.

…..

Cisco was stood in the bunker looking at the force field they had used to trap the Reverse Flash, feeling sick to his stomach. There, within the boundaries of the force field, was a hologram of that very same speedster.

"My goals are beyond your understanding. Dr Wells, we meet at last. My goals are beyond your understanding."

"I can't believe this," he murmured, shaking his head.

"Oh, I'm not like The Flash at all. Some would say, I'm the Reverse." A second voice joined the distorted one of the hologram and Cisco turned to see Dr Wells walk into the room.

…..

"In many ways, you have shown me what it is like to have a son."

The scream that came out of her throat scared Sophie herself. She stood in the doorway of the bunker, eyes wide, heart racing.

"Sophie," whispered Dr Wells.

The young girl didn't move. He walked over to her. Yes, walked.

Tears shone in Sophie's eyes as her gaze moved from Cisco to the floor. Her breaths were so ragged her entire chest moved. "What-" Her voice cracked. She took a shaky breath and looked Dr Wells in the eye. "What were you going to do to him?" She shook her head, a sad smile on her lips. "No, don't tell me. Whatever it is I don't want to know. I don't want to know any of this."

Dr Wells took another step towards her and tried to put his hand on her shoulder, but she moved away. "Don't touch me," she hissed.

He retracted his hand. "Alright. As you wish."

When Sophie met his eyes again the disgust was clear on her face. "Who are you?"

"I am Eobard Thawne. The Reverse Flash, as you call me. Yes, I am a speedster too. It is such a relief to be able to reveal my true self to you, Sophie."

"Don't say my name!" She walked away from him and turned to leave, but the thought of Cisco stopped her. She turned back. He was stood next to the desk, unharmed but traumatised. "Cisco," she said gently. He looked at her. "Why don't you go upstairs and call Barry. Ok?"

He nodded and left, as if in a trance.

"Always looking out for others," said Dr Wells with a hint of pride in her voice.

"What's it to you?" asked Sophie coldly.

"Oh come on. Don't give me that. I made you who you are. Trained you, gave you these powers. You would be nothing without me."

She didn't look at him.

"Two people as powerful as us. Imagine what we could do together. The world would be our hypothetical oyster. Join me, Sophie."

A beaker flew off the shelf and nearly hit Dr Wells, but he moved just in time. It smashed against the wall.

"I will never be like you!" shouted Sophie and she ran out of the lab. She trusted Cisco had contacted Barry and somebody would be there to deal with Dr Wells, or Eobard or whatever he was calling himself now.

Tears blurred her vision as she stepped onto the street. What was happening? She had trusted him!

"Whoa there!" A car zoomed past Sophie as a man pulled her out of the road. She looked up to thank him, slightly confused as to why he was wearing a big winter coat.

"I…uh…thank you," she stammered, too overwhelmed by everything.

"No problem. You look really out of it. Is everything ok?" he asked. Sophie shook her head. "Come on, I'll buy you a coffee." He led her towards Jitters, when she tripped up. Trying to stop herself from falling, she used her superspeed to regain her balance and knew instantly that this man had seen the purple lightning. Before she could even react, he was aiming a swift punch at her jaw.

"Hello Dash," said the man. "You can call me Captain Cold."


	21. Chapter 20

Clutching her jaw, Sophie looked up at him. In a split second she rolled out of his grip, and was about to run away when he shook his head at her. "I wouldn't if I were you."

She raised her eyebrows. "Why not?"

He held up his phone and showed her a video call. On the other end, tied up and gagged, was Caitlin. Captain Cold gave Sophie a serious look. "Come with me and my friend won't hurt her. Run away and I guarantee there is no way you will find her before my friend detonates the bomb."

Sophie did a quick mental calculation. For all she knew, Caitlin wasn't even in Central City. It was too risky, she couldn't risk Caitlin's life. "Alright. I'll come with you."

"Good choice," drawled Captain Cold. He led her into the back of a van parked nearby and closed the doors on her. "I'll trust you not to try and escape."

Sat in the foetal position, Sophie closed her eyes and rested her head back against the wall of the van. The gentle rocking of the van was strangely soothing. Waves of exhaustion threatened to wash over her, but she tried to push everything to the back of her mind and focus on a way of escaping without putting Caitlin's life on the line. Perhaps she could get the phone off him and try and trace the video call, but her computer skills weren't in the same league as Cisco or Dr…

The van shuddered to a stop and Captain Cold threw open the doors. "If you ever want to see your friend again, you will reveal your identity to Central City."

Sophie took a deep breath. "Why? What could you possibly gain from that?"

"And tell them you've retired and I run this city now. I don't have to remind you about Dr Snow, I presume."

She closed her eyes and silently apologised to Joe, Barry, Caitlin and Cisco. "I'll do it."

Captain Cold tied her to a chair in the back of the van, leaving her arms free, and set up a camera on a tripod and some fancy computer equipment. "Ready?" he asked.

Sophie nodded. He started the camera. "Citizens of Central City," she began, voice shaky. "My name is Sophie Sarah Allen and I am Dash." She lifted her left hand into view of the camera and vibrated it until you could see the purple lightning dancing off her fingers. "Cap-" she paused to take a breath. "Captain Cold is now in charge of Central City. The Flash and I have retired."

…..

Barry ran up to Joe at the CCPD. "Hey, Joe, have you seen Sophie? I've been blowing up her phone but she's not replying."

Joe looked at him worriedly. "I was about to ask you the same thing. I've been trying to get a hold of Dr Wells as well."

Captain Singh beckoned them both urgently. "Joe, Barry, you need to see this." They followed him into the office where the entire team was crowded around one of the television screens mounted on the wall. Barry's breath caught in his throat when he saw who was on the screen.

"My name is Sophie Sarah Allen and I am Dash," said his sister.

Joe and Barry shared a look that encompassed everything from fear to sympathy.

Barry's phone rang and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"I'm guessing you're catching the afternoon news in This Is Not Good-ville? Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this but there is a big-ass tidal wave headed for the city. You need to get to the coast now!"

"I'm on it." He hung up and explained the situation to Joe before changing into his Flash suit and racing to the coast. Sure enough, there was a wave big enough to engulf the entire city. He switched on the comm in his suit. "How do I stop it?"

"Theoretically, if you can create a vortex barrier along the coastline, a wall of wind, that would be able to sap the tidal wave of its energy before it hits the city," explained Cisco. "You need to run back and forth along the coast."

"How fast?"

"I don't know if you can run that fast."

"Well, it's not like we have much of a choice." Barry steeled himself and took off, feet pounding the sand, wind whistling past him, driven by the desire to save his city and everyone he cared about. He continued to push himself to the limit, moving faster than he ever had before. Next to him, he could make out the silhouette of another Flash and deja-vu washed over him, but he noticed it was from a different perspective this time. He was the other Flash.

Suddenly his surroundings morphed into something entirely different. Skidding to a stop, he froze and looked around. He was back at the crossroads. Struggling to catch his breath and take it all in, everything seemed surreal. The dogs barking at each other, the person twirling a sign. Nearby, he noticed the all-too-familiar woman calling, "Taxi! Taxi! Oh come on, I'm gonna be late!"

"Oh boy," said Barry.


	22. Chapter 21

Barry stood staring at the street until a voice in his ear jarred him back to reality. "Hey, what's going on? Dude?"

"Yeah, Cisco. I'm here."

Cisco's voice sounded slightly irritated. "What happened? Why'd you stop?"

Barry gave the street another distrustful glance. "I just got a little disoriented."

"Well, you need to make up some time, man. You better hurry up."

"Hurry?"

"Hurry, as in get to the morgue."

"The morgue? I was there. Yesterday."

"What are you talking about? Come on, you gotta go."

Barry shook his head slightly, as if to clear the fog out of his mind, and set off towards the morgue. When he arrived Joe greeted him with a 'hey, Bar' which gave him even more deja-vu than he already had.

"What's with all the water?" asked Joe. "Did the sprinkler system go off or something?"

"No, I checked the sprinklers. They're all intact. But the water has ice in it. And the bruises on the coroner aren't just on his face. Check look at his torso." Barry knelt down and pulled up the coroner's shirt to reveal bruises covering his torso.

"Whoa. How the hell did you know that?"

"He was killed by hail," explained Barry. "We have to listen to the recording."

Joe frowned. "Recording?"

Eddie came up to them and Barry nodded, remembering. " Joe, we got something. The coroner's office just installed an automated dictation system. Listen to this."

He pressed play and the room was filled with a crackly voice begging, "Please no more!"

Another voice replied, "I'll stop when you tell me who killed him!"

Barry said, "It's Mark Mardon. He wants revenge."

…..

Sat on the desk in S.T.A.R. Labs, Sophie asked, "Clyde Mardon has a brother?"

"So, both Mardon brothers survived the plane crash and then the dark matter released by the Particle Accelerator explosion affects them both in virtually the same way," explained Dr Wells.

"Only Mark's not like Clyde at all," said Barry. "He can do things that you couldn't even imagine."

"You mean he's sort of like a –"

"Weather wizard," said Barry and Cisco in unison.

Cisco looked at Barry with his eyebrows drawn closer together. "Yeah." He took another sip of his slushy and winced.

"Trigeminal headache?" chorused Barry and Caitlin. Sophie rested her chin on her palm and frowned at her brother.

"Mr Allen. A word please," said Dr Wells. He wheeled himself into the work room and Sophie hopped off the desk to follow her brother.

Once the door had closed, Dr Wells looked at Barry with the angriest expression they had ever seen on his face. "You ruptured the time continuum, didn't you? You're experiencing temporal reversion."

"Yeah," said Barry.

"How long?" demanded Dr Wells.

"Uh, a day and some change. It's like I'm living it all over again."

Dr Wells let out a relieved breath. "Yeah, well that's good. That means there's not too much you could've messed up yet."

Sophie twisted a lock of hair around one finger. "You're saying Barry travelled in time? That's, like, a thing we can do?"

"Apparently," shrugged Barry.

Dr Wells ignored Sophie's comment and continued pressing Barry for information. "How did this happen?"

Barry waved his arms around. "I…I don't know. I mean, I was running faster than I've ever ran, and the first time that I lived this day some really horrible things happened. There was a tidal wave and-"

Dr Wells cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Do not tell me. I do not want to know anything about the future you experienced."

Barry opened his mouth but Dr Wells shook his head. "Nothing!"

"Okay, but Dr Wells, I-"

"Barry. Time is an extremely fragile construct. Any deviation, no matter how small, could result in a cataclysm. Now here's what you're going to do. Everything you did before. Every word you uttered, every step you took, you're going to do again. And you're not going to tell anyone this happened."

Barry nodded and Sophie gave him a sympathetic look.

…..

Dr Wells stood up from his wheelchair and slid his glasses into his pocket as the screen in front of him lit up. "Good day, Dr Wells," greeted the electronic voice.

"Time will tell, Gideon," he replied. "Show me the future."

"As you wish." The familiar news article of 'Speedsters missing, vanish in crisis' was brought up. "The future remains intact, Dr Wells."

Relief flooded over him. "If anything changes, alert me immediately."

"Of course, Doctor."

…..

"Hey," Joe greeted Barry at the police station, looking up from the case file he was holding.

"Hey," replied Barry, trying to shoulder past him in the doorway.

Joe grabbed his arm to stop him. "What's going on with you? How'd you figure all that stuff out at the morgue?"

Barry tried to disentangle his arm. "Lucky guesses, I guess," he shrugged.

"Look, I'm telling you, I'm gonna get Mardon if it kills me," said Joe seriously.

"Joe, um I gotta run an errand. I'll see you later." He finally got his arm free and dashed out of the station.

…..

Mark Mardon hammered on the door of the cell. "I'm gonna break out of here! I'm gonna create a tidal wave that destroys your entire city!"

Barry smiled proudly to himself, but Cisco wasn't convinced. "So, I still don't understand. How did you find him?"

Barry shrugged. "I just had a hunch."

"That's gotta be some kind of record," said Cisco, sharing a look with Caitlin before they both left.

Dr Wells turned his wheelchair to face Barry with a facial expression of pure rage. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

"Yeah, I do. I just saved a lot of lives."

"I warned you not to mess with the timeline," growled Dr Wells.

"Dr Wells, if you would just let me tell you what was gonna happen; you'd understand why I did this."

"Whatever tragedy you think you've just averted, time will find a way to replace it and trust me, Barry, the next one could be much worse." He turned and left.

Barry stood staring at the wall until Sophie gently tapped him on the shoulder. "You need to listen to Dr Wells, don't change anything else about the timeline."

Barry shook her off. "And, what, you're just going to listen to him? You weren't there; you didn't see what I saw!"

"I don't need to. We are dealing with things we know nothing about, so we might as well trust the one man who at least partially understands these powers." She took his hand. "Please, promise me you won't do anything stupid."

Barry sighed, "Alright, I promise. But don't you think it's a bit strange Dr Wells knows so much?"

Sophie cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"He's never travelled in time or ran at our speed, but seems to know an awful lot about it."

"Barry, he's a scientist. It's his job to know all about this sort of thing." She patted him on the arm. "And you should listen to him."

…..

When Dr Wells entered the training room, Barry was running on the treadmill so fast he was a blur. When he saw the other man he stopped, panting. "I've been running just as fast as I was when it happened, and nothing. I'm still here."

"Any number of things could've triggered the wormhole that allows you to repeat your day. Your emotions, your circumstances, your cortisol levels, all of the above."

Barry nodded in understanding. "Well, I mean, my adrenaline was super high since the entire city-"

Dr Wells cut him off. "No, no, no. No details. I told you."

"All right, I'm sorry, but Mark Mardon's already locked in the pipeline and nothing bad has happened."

"Yet," said Dr Wells coldly. "Detective," he greeted as Joe entered the lab.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" asked Barry.

"So when were you planning on telling me you took down Mardon?" demanded Joe.

"I…I just haven't had a chance yet." Barry was mentally kicking himself.

"You got sidetracked, you mean?"

"No, Joe, you can't be mad," begged Barry.

"I'm not mad. But I am curious. I mean, you were acting so weird at the crime scene."

Barry scoffed. "I always act weird."

"Okay. Weirder."

Barry clasped his hands behind his head. "Look, Joe, there are just some things that I can't tell you, and you're gonna have to trust me."

Joe shook his head sadly, "Alright. Well, I'd better get back to the precinct.

"Bye, Joe," said Barry, standing.

"Where are you going?" asked Dr Wells.

"To speak to Sophie," he said. He found his sister in the Cortex playing on her phone. "Hey, Soph, can I borrow you for a second?"

She put her phone in her pocket. "Of course. What's up?"

He led her into the corridor. "I have to talk to someone or I think I might go insane."

She nodded. "Go ahead."

"In the previous version of today, there is a massive tidal wave headed for the city, Caitlin is missing and you revealed your identity to the whole of Central City on TV."

"Why on earth would I do that?"

Barry shrugged. "I don't know, but you did."

Sophie staggered back and slid down the wall so she was sat in the foetal position. "This feels really familiar," she whispered, pressing one hand against her head. "But it didn't happen."

Barry knelt down next to her and placed a hand on her arm. Suddenly Sophie's mind was filled with images of Captain Cold kidnapping her and threatening Caitlin. She clutched her brother's hand and looked at him. "I remember! Captain Cold kidnapped me and said he would hurt Caitlin if I didn't tell everybody he was running the city." Barry helped her up.

"We need to stop him," said Barry.

Sophie, still holding onto the wall for support, shook her head. "We can't risk the timeline again. Dr Wells is right. This is dangerous."

"So you're saying we should just let that happen?" asked Barry, voice rising in volume.

"I'm saying we should just let this timeline pan out. please, Barry, trust me."

Cisco stuck his head into the corridor. "Guys, there's a bank robbery in progress and Sophie, there's somebody here to see you." The two siblings entered the Cortex where Sophie greeted Thea with a hug.

 **AN - coming up soon: Sophie and Thea's side adventure, Barry learning some new abilites and Sophie getting her own back on Captain Cold.**


	23. Chapter 22

"It's so great to see you!" said Sophie.

"You too," smiled Thea. "I wish it was under less dangerous circumstances. A gang of bank robbers have just had a spree in Starling City and we tracked them here. If it's not too much to ask would you mind helping me stop them?"

Sophie grinned. "Not a problem at all." She looked at Barry. "I'll see you later. Try not to end the world." Winking at him, she headed out of the door with Thea.

Dr Wells stared at their retreating backs and shook his head. "That's the last we've seen of her for today."

Barry smiled. "We should start referring to them as, like, the Dynamic Duo or something."

"Let's leave the names up to Cisco, shall we?" Dr Wells wheeled himself closer to the desk and began typing on the computer. "Today I was thinking we could see how far your abilities have developed. There may be some new skills you can learn."

Barry looked at the screen over his shoulder. "Like what?"

Dr Wells carried on typing then triumphantly hit the space bar. On the screen a digital Barry ran in a circle, swung his arm and threw a bolt of lightning at a target. "Judging from your speed and control over the speed force you should be able to toss lightning."

Barry's eyebrows shot up. "I can do that?!"

Dr Wells turned to look at him. "Theoretically. We'll work on it."

…..

The two girls changed into their super suits and Sophie followed Thea towards Central City bank. "This is the only major bank in the area and, judging from their past targets, the one they are most likely to go for," explained Thea. "I figured they would try about now because it's starting to go dark." They went through back alleys so nobody would see them, moving quickly. Just as a hail of gunfire sounded and followed by screaming the two girls reached the back entrance of the bank. Thea kicked down the door and ran into the bank, pulling an arrow out of her quiver and drawing her bow.

There were three robbers wearing ski masks and holding guns. Nobody had been hurt, but there was a small collection of bullets lodged in the ceiling. All the bank customers were hiding under desks or sheltering by the wall.

"How are two girls in Halloween costumes planning on stopping us?" asked one of the robbers.

Thea smiled. "Clearly you haven't met us."

The robbers aimed and shot at them, but Sophie froze the bullets aimed at her in the air and Thea pulled out her sword and deflected the ones aimed at her in one fluid movement. Sophie released the bullets and they dropped to the ground inches in front of her. While the robbers were staring at them, presumably with wide eyes but it was impossible to tell through their masks, Thea notched another arrow in her bow and placed a boxing glove on the end of it. Nodding at Sophie, she fired. The first robber went down while Sophie began running in circles around them. Thea fired two more boxing glove arrows in quick succession while the men were too disorientated to do anything.

"They've got backup," called Sophie from the doorway as more masked men piled out of a van.

"Let's give them a warm welcome," said Thea as she fired a bola arrow at the three robbers on the floor. The cords wrapped around them and they tried to squirm free, to no avail. "How many?" she called to Sophie.

Activating her speed, Dash zapped out to the street and back again. "Five, each with a gun."

Speedy nodded. "Easy." Addressing the customers of the bank, she asked, "Have any of you called the police yet?" Her question was met with several terrified head shakes. "When we've gone you can call the cops." The customers nodded. More gunfire sounded as the five robbers entered in identical ski masks. Thea aimed another bola arrow at them and drew back the string. "Three…" Sophie got in position to run. "Two…One." She fired; and two of the robbers suddenly found themselves bound to one another on the floor. Sophie stole their guns and kicked them to the centre of the room. Then she ran in a circle around another of the robbers until they were too dizzy to move. Abruptly, she stopped and sat them next to the others on the floor. Two more remained. For good measure, Sophie used her telekinesis to move a bell off the desk by the doorway and knock one of the robbers out with it.

The last robber eyes his friends tied up and/or unconscious on the floor and held up his hands in surrender. "We're good here. We're good." He was backing towards the entrance, but Sophie focused on the doors and they slammed shut behind him. He jumped and spun round. Rolling her eyes, Thea hit him with a boxing glove arrow and he fell down next to the other.

"Good job," said Sophie, high fiving Thea.

"We done here?"

"Looks like." Sophie was halfway through the back door when Thea grabbed her hand.

"I have a better idea." She pulled Sophie out of the front door and pulled a grappling hook arrow out of her quiver. "Hold on tight." She aimed and fired at a nearby building. Sophie wrapped her arms around Thea as rope pulled them up the building. Together they scrambled onto the roof.

Panting, Sophie said, "that was so cool!"

Thea grinned. "Want to do it again?"

"Actually, there is somewhere I wanted to go. There's an old acquaintance that needs to be taught a lesson."

She gave Thea an address. "Ok, let's go." Thea fired an arrow at a building across the street of a similar size and the two of them swung through the city, Sophie clinging on to Thea like her life depended on it, exhilarated by the wind rushing past her and occasionally daring to look down at the streets beneath her.

When they reached the street Sophie remembered from the alternate timeline, she was feeling slightly giddy. "Not as fun as running, but that is really cool!"

…..

The bunker had been set up with cardboard targets roughly shaped like people with bullseyes in the middle of their chest. Dr Wells positioned his wheelchair by the wall and clasped his hands in his lap.

"Hey, Dr Wells do you know where Caitlin is?" asked Cisco as he entered, eyes on his tablet. "I haven't seen her all – Mama Mia!" Not looking where he was going, he walked straight into one of the targets and screamed, trying to hide behind his tablet while eyeing the target distrustfully.

"It's just a cardboard cut-out, Cisco," said Dr Wells, smiling. "It's not going to hurt you. Mr Allen, however, is hopefully going to hurt it."

"I'm going to throw lightning at it," added Barry.

"Yo, are you about to pull a Zeus right now? What are you talking about?"

"Barry's going to toss lightning from the energy he creates when he runs," explained Dr Wells. "And Caitlin called in to say she might be a bit late because Ronnie was taking her out for dinner."

"Ronnie's back in town?"

"Just for a few days, but yes. And presumably Sophie is still assisting Thea?"

Cisco shrugged. "Last I heard the Wonder Girls were still at it."

Dr Wells gave Barry a pointed look. "See, I told you to leave the names to Cisco."

"See, I knew you liked my names really," said Cisco. "I'd better be…not here." He indicated to the door with is tablet and left, turning around once more in the doorway to give the target he walked into the eye.

…..

"Is that him?" whispered Thea, indicating with her eyes to Captain Cold. Sophie nodded. In unison, the two of them leapt off the roof of the van and landed in front of him.

"What have we here?" he drawled, giving them both a once-over. In a split second he found himself being thrown against the wall by what seemed to be an invisible force. With the air temporarily knocked out of him, he had no choice but to listen as Dash approached him and spoke quietly and threateningly. "If you so much as think about coming near me, the Flash or anybody at S.T.A.R. Labs you will be sorry. Understand?"

Captain Cold tried to move, but Dash held him in place. "Sorry, can you run that by me one more time?"

Dash released him and he fell forwards. Before he could so much as take a step, there was a flash of purple lightning and she had him in a headlock. "Understand now?"

"Give me one good reason."

Thea held up his freeze ray. "This a good enough reason?" She threw it at the wall and Sophie used her telekinesis to give it a little extra push, and it shattered into a thousand pieces.

"Fine. I will not come near you or any of your friends."

Sophie tightened her grip on him.

"Ever. I understand perfectly."

Sophie released him. "We will hold you to that. Don't think I'm not willing to do this to you again."

Captain Cold sighed. "Whatever." He tried walk back inside, but Sophie tripped him up. Rolling his eyes, he picked himself up and slammed the door behind him.

…..

Barry's lightning bolt flew past the target and sparked at the wall. He groaned in frustration and ran his hands through his hair.

"It's because you're trying to rush it," said Dr Wells. "This is the one time you need to slow down. Let the energy pass over you, then simply direct it to where you want it to go."

"You make it sound easy," sighed Barry.

"No, I make it sound possible. Which it is, you just need to practice."

Barry tried again, taking a deep breath and focusing on where he wanted the lightning to go. Almost as if it was an extension of his consciousness, it flowed out of him and struck the target right on the bullseye. "I did it!"

"Congratulations, Mr Allen. I said you could do it."

 **AN - thanks to highlander348 and Mangagirl1218 for the comments. Next chapter should be up soon.**


	24. Chapter 23

"Said he could do what?" asked Sophie from the doorway.

Barry grinned at her. "This." He ran in a circle again then threw lightning perfectly at the target.

Sophie applauded excitedly. "Now, _that_ is cool." Thea nodded her agreement.

"Miss Queen," began Dr Wells. "Shouldn't you be getting back to Starling City?"

Thea fiddled with her sleeve. "Actually, I talked it over with Ollie just now-"

"-you did?" asked Sophie in surprise.

"I did. And he agreed I can stay here with you guys for the time being. Central City seems to be the number one target for just about everything at the moment and you guys look like you could use all the help you could get. If I'm needed back home Sophie will run me there, won't you?"

"Absolutely."

"If that's ok with all of you, that is."

Dr Wells spread his hands out in front of him. "I have no problems with that."

"Welcome aboard," said Barry with a smile. "Hey!" Purple lightning tapped him on the shoulder and called 'tag'.

Barry gave chase and the two of them tore through the city, hot on each other's heels. He caught up with Sophie fairly quickly and was about to tag her when she put on an extra burst of speed and pulled out of his reach. But when the wind blew her hair into her mouth and she slowed down to brush it out if her face Barry finally tagged her.

"Tag!"

"Hey, that's not fair!"

"It's perfectly fair," called Barry over his shoulder. Sophie rolled her eyes and sped after him, smiling. She chased him down an alley, then almost crashed right into him as he froze suddenly. As Sophie followed his gaze she could feel her pulse in her ears. Stood before them was the Reverse Flash.

"Catch me if you can," he said in his distorted voice. Sophie ran after him, but a second later there was two of him.

"What's happening?" she shouted to her brother.

"I have no idea!"

"Take one each?" offered Sophie, eyes wide. Her brother nodded. Each dashed after one of the Reverse Flashes but a second later they had merged into one again.

"Please tell me this is all some strange dream," begged Sophie as she paused to catch her breath.

"I wish I could," sighed Barry. "Sophie – wait!" But his sister had already left him in her dust. He watched as she tackled the Reverse Flash to the ground and prepared to punch him, then froze as he disintegrated before her.

"What the-" Sophie looked all around, but she could see no sign of the Reverse Flash anywhere. "Tell me he did not just vanish."

"I don't think he did. We should get back to S.T.A.R. Labs and tell Dr Wells."

Sophie slowly stood up. "Alright."

Thea, Caitlin and Cisco were sat in the Cortex when the Allen siblings walked in. cisco took one look at the expressions on both their faces and stood, pulling them both into a group hug. "I have no idea what just happened, but y'all needed hugs. I can tell you that right now." Caitlin awkwardly stood as well, but hung back until Cisco beckoned her over. "Don't think you're getting out of this," he said, pulling her and Thea into the hug as well.

Once Cisco had released them, Sophie resumed her usual position sat on the desk and set about dramatically describing what had taken place.

Dr Wells rolled in just as she was getting to the part where the Reverse Flash seemed to duplicate himself. "Ah, a speed mirage," he said pensively.

"Isn't that a type of headache?" asked Sophie.

"That would be a migraine," Caitlin corrected her. "A mirage is what people get in the desert when they are dehydrated and start to hallucinate."

"Oh, ok. Thank you," said Sophie. Caitlin nodded in acknowledgement, and Thea shared a soft smile with her.

"A speed mirage is an after-image, an optical illusion, a mirroring effect caused by wind shear and light," explained Dr Wells. "Caused by a speedster vibrating their body at a high enough frequency to leave an image behind after the original host has moved."

Sophie shifted slightly on the table. "That's impressive. D'you reckon we could do that?"

"It's a possibility. Barry probably could, but your abilities seem much more focused on telekinesis. The Reverse Flash may not know you can do that, so it would be more beneficial to attempt to hone those skills in order to defeat him."

Caitlin nodded in agreement. "For the time being we could just see how –" She froze midsentence as a familiar figure ran into the lab.

"Sophie, Barry, Dr Wells please we need your help!" said Iris, frantically gesturing with her hands as she spoke and trying to catch her breath at the same time. Caitlin quickly stood up and gestured for Iris to sit down. She gratefully sank into the chair and rested her elbows on the desk, head in hands.

"Iris," said Barry. "How did you – why are you – what?"

Sophie patted him on the arm. "I got this. Iris, are you alright?"

When Iris looked up at them her face was streaked with tears. "The Reverse Flash took one of my co-workers, Mason Bridge. Just ran into the room and took him!" Sophie stood up and hugged her sister from behind.

Barry looked down and realised he was still wearing his Flash suit, and that Iris hadn't commented on it.

"What made you think to come here?" asked Dr Wells.

Iris took a shaky breath. "Sophie and Barry are speedsters. If anybody was going to know a way to stop him it'd be you guys."

"Wait," said Barry, pacing the room. "Iris, you know?"

Sophie winced. "That one's on me. I kinda told her about our powers. And, you know, everything that's been happening. Well actually she figured it out first, which was very impressive."

"How did you figure it out?" asked Barry.

"When I touched Dash a while back, I felt a jolt of electricity. The only other time I have ever felt anything like that was when you two were in a coma after the accident. I confronted Sophie about it and she told me. But we both agreed to keep it secret from you."

"Why would you do that?"

"I figured you would want to keep me 'safe' by not telling me," said Iris. "And I was right."

Barry turned on Sophie. "So you went behind my back and told her?! Putting her in danger, making her a target of metahumans everywhere!"

Sophie drew herself up to her full height. "I told Iris so she would be able to defend herself and she has. By opting to keep her in the dark you did her no favours. Not only that, but she has been a fantastic help researching metas for us."

Cisco loudly cleared his throat. "As much as this is completely none of my business, we do have a missing person to find and it might be wise to do all of this," he made a hand gesture encompassing Barry, Sophie and Iris, "later."

The three of them nodded and Iris gave them a more detailed description of Mason Bridge's abduction. Caitlin looked through the security footage, but they could not find where the Reverse Flash had taken him.

"Do you want Barry and I to search the city?" offered Sophie.

"That might be beneficial, yes," said Dr Wells. "Miss West, you are more than welcome to stay here. I'm sure Miss Queen will stay with you in the meantime."

Thea nodded. "My pleasure."

 **AN - huge thanks to Mangagirl1218, highlander348, WinterRain36, Guest and Stargirl720 for such kind reviews. It means a lot to me that you guys enjoy my writing :)**


	25. Chapter 24

"He's nowhere to be found," panted Sophie upon her return to S.T.A.R. Labs, closely followed by her brother.

"He has to be somewhere," said Dr Wells. "Nobody is nowhere."

"It doesn't matter if he is somewhere because we don't know where that some is. Wait, what?" Sophie paused and frowned, mouthing her sentence again and trying to fathom whether what she had just said made any sense.

"Regardless of my sister's abysmal grammar," continued Barry, pointedly ignoring Sophie's 'I'm still here!', "we have to find him, fast."

"But you two searched the entire city," said Caitlin. "What more could you possibly do?"

"Wait," gasped Sophie. "We did search the entire city, but do you know where we didn't search? Here. He's somewhere in S.T.A.R. Labs."

Thea gave Sophie an impressed look, "girl, that is some good thinking."

Sophie smiled. "Thanks."

Barry got ready to run, but at that exact moment Cisco's phone rang. "Hello? Ok, I'll be right there." He put her phone back in his pocket. "I just have a quick errand to run. Do you mind?"

"Not at all," said Dr Wells. As Cisco left, Dr Wells said, "If you don't mind I have an errand to run as well."

"Let's get going," said Sophie.

The two speedsters tore through the lab, searching every nook and cranny.

"He's not here. Looks like Sophie was wrong," sighed Barry.

"I highly doubt Sophie was wrong," said Iris.

"Well you know, it happened once. In a dream," he muttered.

"You wish," teased his sister.

Caitlin laughed, pulling up blueprints on the computer. "After the accelerator exploded, Cisco built a 3-D model of S.T.A.R. Labs so that we could pinpoint exactly what caused the malfunction. We can run a test to see if there are any rooms here that we don't know about."

"And you never did this before?" asked Iris.

"Of course we did. We just never had any reason to look at any areas outside of the pipeline or the cortex. It's a big building. Lots of places for someone to hide something." She ran the test and an area came up red near the Cortex. "What is that? That shouldn't be there."

The three of them headed out to the corridor, hearts pounding. "According to the blueprints, the secret room should be right around…here." Caitlin stopped in front of a wall. "Well, this is a wall."

"It might be hollow," suggested Iris.

"Good thinking," said Barry, running his hand along it. "Sometimes there are secret rooms and stuff inside – gah!"

"You broke it!" scolded Iris.

"I did no such thing!"

"Guys," said Caitlin, nodding towards the open panel. The five of them slowly stepped inside the darkened room and lights flickered on. The panel slid shut behind them, and the walls appeared to be covered in Braille. Laid on the floor, alive but beaten up, was Mason Bridge. He let out a low groan at the sight of them.

"We need to get him medical attention, fast," said Caitlin, kneeling down to check his pulse. Barry lifted Mason up and ran him to the medical bay.

…..

Cisco and Joe parked by a near-deserted road lined with trees in Starling City. Joe compared it to the crime scene photographs he had acquired of the night Tess Morgan died. Nearly identical. "This is definitely the place. Cisco, let's see what we can find. What is that?"

Cisco had produced a device that looked like a decked-out, really small vacuum cleaner. "A, uh, metal detector? Uh, essentially. Only instead of listening for metal objects, I'm listening for anything that emits an abnormal sound wave." He put on a pair of headphones and began scanning the grass nearby.

"Right." Joe took another sip of his coffee. It was going to be a long morning.

"Joe!" called Cisco from somewhere in the foliage.

"Yeah?" The older man made his way through the bushes.

"I think we got something. Tachyons. Little bits of time travel." He gestured to a spot on the ground.

"You sure?"

Cisco indicated to something with his eyes and Joe looked down to see his coffee floating out of his cup.

"Pretty sure, yeah."

Joe grabbed a shovel from the car and began digging, scraping at the rough dirt. The younger man was about to help when Joe caught sight of something and stopped him.

"Wait, hold on, Cisco." With his gloved hand he scraped some of the dirt away from around what appeared to be a human appendage.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is," said Cisco, wincing and partially covering her eyes.

Joe brushed some more dirt away. "Okay, that is definitely a hand."

"Okay, see, I thought it was a foot, but a hand is just as bad. That is freaky."

"That is proof, Cisco." Joe stood up. "Proof that something strange is going on with Harrison Wells."

"I'll need to test it to be certain," said Cisco, making his way to the car. "I'm gonna grab my kit."

…..

The quiet beeping of the heart monitor in the background was the only sound as Caitlin attached an IV drip to Mason's hand. He was asleep, recovering from a few cracked ribs.

"Is he going to be ok?" asked Thea gently.

"Yes," said Caitlin, putting her medical equipment away. The two women joined Iris where she was sat staring into space in the Cortex.

Meanwhile, Barry and Sophie had gone to have a closer investigation of the room. They entered cautiously, holding hands, terrified of what they might find. Another panel, opposite the entrance, swung open to reveal the Reverse Flash's yellow suit illuminated by a spotlight inside the antechamber.

"Oh my stars," breathed Sophie, tears welling in her eyes. "He's been here this whole time, right under our noses."

The sight of the suit reminded her of all the times she had gone up against this man. Yes, she was faster than him – but would that be enough?

If he was inside that suit right now she would beat the living daylights out of him; make him pay for what he did to her family, for what he did to innocent people.

"Sophie," said her brother, looking at something to their right. She turned, and saw a screen filling one wall with a newspaper article on it dated 'April 25th 2024' with the headline 'speedsters missing, vanish in crisis'. Below it was a blurry picture of her and her brother.

"Well, this is new," commented Sophie.

 **AN - thanks to caitlinmontgomery, Stargirl720, TheRealNerd, Mangagirl1218, highlander348 and WinterRain36 for the comments. There will be more Wonder Girls coming up soon as well as the introduction of Vibe!**


	26. Note

Hi everyone,

Sorry this isn't a chapter, but I am going on holiday for a few weeks and don't know if I will have internet access so I am unsure about when I will be able to update. In the meantime, it is nearing the end of the line for Speedster Siblings but do not worry because I am going to write a sequel, working title 'the adventures of Sophie Allen' , featuring the escapades of the Allen siblings, the Wonder Girls and some more fun stuff I want to write but have been unable to fit into Speedster Siblings, so have a think and let me know of there is anything you want to see in that.

Thank you,

Beth


	27. Chapter 25

"You don't say," said Barry, walking closer to the screen like he was in a trance. "This can't be real."

Sophie staggered backwards and nearly tripped over. "I…I'll go get the others."

"Ok," said her brother, not taking his eyes off the screen.

When Sophie entered the Cortex she saw Caitlin sat before one of the computers explaining something to Iris and Thea. "Cisco told me on the night we trapped the Reverse-Flash in the forcefield that he supposedly escaped because the containment system failed, but the super-capacitors were still fully charged when he got out. Maybe Dr Wells did something to the trap."

"Are you suggesting that Dr Wells is in league with Reverse Flash?" asked Iris, horrified.

"No, she's saying Dr Wells _is_ the Reverse Flash," said Sophie from the doorway.

Thea turned to look at her, and immediately noticed the shellshocked expression on her friend's face. She ran over and wrapped her in a hug.

"You guys need to see this," said Sophie, leading them back into the secret room. The three girls took in the suit and article, their eyes widening. "Look at the date. When Barry and I fought him before he said we'd been doing this for a long time."

"Wait, you can't really think that this is from the future. That would means Dr Wells, or whoever he is, is also from the future," said Caitlin.

"Correct," said a female voice none of them recognised.

"What the hell was that? Is someone here? Hello?" called Barry.

"Good evening, Barry Allen." The article vanished, and in its place was the figure of a woman vaguely resembling an android.

"Uh H-hi," stuttered Barry. "You know who I am?"

"Of course. Barry Allen, director of Central City Police, CSI Division also known as the Flash," said the computer.

"Director?" asked Barry.

"I guess you get a promotion," said Sophie.

"And you are Sophie Allen, mayor of Central City. Also known as Dash."

"Mayor?! That is so awesome," squealed Sophie.

"Congratulations," said Iris.

The computer continued, "Together you are founding members of-"

"What are you?" asked Barry. His sister gave him a put-out look for interrupting the computer.

"I am Gideon, an interactive artificial consciousness."

"You know Dr Wells?" Barry asked.

"Yes.

"Do you know who he really is?"

"I don't understand the question."

"I mean, what is he doing here? W-why did he come here?"

"To kill you."

"Dr Wells is in the building," said Caitlin worriedly.

"What? How do you know that?" asked Sophie.

"Cisco put a tracker on his wheelchair. He's in the Cortex. Ask questions fast."

"Why did he kill Nora Allen?" pressed Barry.

"Because he was angry.

"About what?"

"That you escaped."

"He's on B level. He's coming this way," said Caitlin, her tone increasing in urgency.

"What does he want from me?"

"For you to be The Flash."

"Maybe that's why Wells let the particle accelerator explode, so that we could get powers," suggested Sophie darkly.

"Why? I mean, for what reason?" continued Barry as if his sister had not spoken.

We have to go. He's almost here," Caitlin warned them.

Sophie's pulse increased as she took over from her brother. "Gideon, please could you, like, not tell him that we were here?"

"Of course. I will accept any command given to me by you."

"Come on," said Thea, tugging on Sophie's arm.

"We have to get out of here," added Iris.

"Why would you accept my commands?" asked Sophie.

"Because you created me."

"I wha-" But Thea grabbed Sophie's arm and yanked her into the Cortex. The five of them sat down and attempted to appear casual as Dr Wells calmly entered.

"Hello Sophie," he said cheerfully.

"Hi," she replied and instantly winced at how forced it sounded.

"Are you alright?" he asked, brow furrowed in concern at Sophie' expression.

"I'm fine. How was your errand, Dr Wells?"

He smiled slightly and shrugged one shoulder. "Oh, you know. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Sophie nodded but didn't make eye contact. Instead she fiddled with her sleeve and picked at a loose thread. "Good."

"Well, if you'll excuse me I have work to do. Cisco should be back soon." Dr Wells wheeled himself out of the room.

Sophie took a breath and leant back in her chair, stretching out her legs. "That was not fun. I don't know how much longer I can do this for."

"You're not alone," said Thea quietly. Barry, Caitlin and Iris nodded in agreement. "Try to remember that."

…..

Dr Wells slid his glasses into his pocket and stood up. "Good evening, Gideon," he said briskly.

"Good evening, Dr Wells," replied the figure of the woman on screen.

"Is everything all right? Aside from the fact that Mason Bridge is not here, and some of the medical supplies are missing." He raised one eyebrow a fraction. "It appears that the time is here at last. Part of me had been hoping this day would never come."

…..

Barry, Joe, Sophie, Cisco, Caitlin, Iris and Thea stood in Barry's dimly lit lab staring in horror at what was on his desk. A charred human body.

"This isn't possible," breathed Caitlin, hands clenched into fists. Sophie was partially hidden behind Thea, hand over her eyes and resisting the urge to gag.

"Caitlin, I ran the DNA test twice," said Cisco. "It's a perfect match. This body is the real Harrison Wells."

"If this is Dr Wells, then who have we been working for this whole time?" asked Caitlin in a distant voice.  
"Dr McGee said that after the accident, Wells became a completely different person. It's because he is a different person," said Barry.

Sophie held up one hand. "I can't do this." She walked out of the lab and sat in the foetal position on the floor in the corridor. Tears streamed down her face but she didn't bother to wipe them away.

At the sound of footsteps approaching she looked up. Joe knelt next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. I want it to not happen, but that's not really an option, so I'll settle for getting through all this in one piece." Joe handed her a tissue and she wiped her nose. "Sorry I'm so disgusting."

Moving into a more comfortable position, Joe put an arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. "If anybody can get through this it's you, Sophie. You are without doubt the strongest person I know. You've been through so much at such a young age and look at you. You never broke. Not once did you allow these events to stop you from being the amazing person we know and love."

"Yeah, I am pretty awesome," she said with a tearful laugh.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, Sophie calming down. When Thea knocked on the doorframe she started and accidentally headbutted Joe in the jaw.

"Sorry to scare you," said Thea sheepishly. "They've covered up the …you know. Cisco said he has something he needs to tell us."

Joe looked at Sophie. "You up for it?"

She nodded and stood, brushing off her jeans. Together they walked back into the lab. Sure enough, the table in the middle was covered by a large white cloth.

Cisco wrung his hands together. "So, I've been having these dreams. And in these dreams, Dr Wells is the Reverse Flash and tries to con Sophie over to his side, but she doesn't let him."

"That makes sense, since his suit is in the Time Vault," said Caitlin.

"The time what?" asked Joe.

"Vault. In S.T.A.R. Labs there is a creepy Braille room from the future," said Sophie as if it was perfectly ordinary.

"From the future. So the Reverse Flash time travelled?" Joe took a breath. "Wow. Okay, I know we've seen a lot this past year, but time travel?"

"I did it. Or I will do it, I mean," said Barry.

Joe's eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"

"One of the two speedsters in our house the night Mom died was Barry. I mean, The Flash. We don't know for certain, but judging from all the time travel going on and the colour of the lightning, he was there. Which means that one day in the future, Barry will travel back in time to that night," Sophie exclaimed.

"Okay," said Joe cautiously.

"Actually, I wasn't talking about that. I kind of already time travelled. By accident," admitted Barry. "I was running to try and stop a tsunami from hitting the city-"

"-When was that?" asked Cisco.

"A few weeks ago. Right before you started getting those dreams. So, what if they're not dreams?"

"What else could they be?" enquired Caitlin.

"Memories. Soph remembers the other timeline."

"You do?" asked Joe.

She nodded. "I do."

"All right, what if, that day, Cisco found out that Wells is the Reverse-Flash? But when I ran back a day, I changed the timeline so that event never happened."

"If it never happened, how can Cisco remember it? He's not a speedster," said Iris.

"I don't know. I think the important thing is, he does."

"Guys, I think I've got a really bad idea," said Sophie.

"That's my favourite kind," said Thea, smiling at her.

 **AN - Hi everyone! Thanks to Mangagirl1218 and TheRealNerd for your lovely comments. I'll take your advice on board when the sequel comes along. I don't know when the next update will be but I'll do my best.**


	28. Chapter 26

Sophie took a breath. "Here is my really bad idea: we recreate the original scenario that Cisco experienced, then when Dr Wells has revealed himself to be, you know, not Dr Wells and the man who killed our mother then he will go to jail and we can carry on with our lives or whatever." She paused. "That sounded really disjointed didn't it?"

Barry shrugged one shoulder. "It wasn't too bad."

"Ok. Because I was there with Cisco when he confessed and we can both remember it, right? So if we do it exactly the same he'll confess again and y'all can record it."

"Wait, did you just say y'all?" asked Iris.

Sophie paused. "So I did."

Joe shook his head. "Taking down bad guys, pulling confessions. I'm the cop. It should be me doing this."

"Look, if we're gonna get him to confess, it has to be with someone that he truly trusts, someone that he'll genuinely let his guard down with. He thinks of Cisco as a son, this is the only way we can do this," said Barry.

"Well, then we need to do a better job protecting him than I did protecting you," sighed Joe.

"How do you mean?" asked Sophie.

"This is all because of me. I never should've let Wells take you from that hospital when you were in comas. None of this would've ever happened."

Sophie took his arm. "If you hadn't let him take us we wouldn't still be here. And you don't know that our powers wouldn't have shown and we wouldn't have found our way here anyway."

"But even then, I knew something wasn't right. Everything in my gut was telling me not to trust him, but I did, because I was so desperate to see you okay." He started crying and Sophie hugged him tightly.

"Joe, this isn't your fault. It's not your fault. Look, every bad thing that has happened to us, all of it, was him. And now he's gonna pay for it," promised Barry.

…..

"All right, Cisco, you know when he gets here you need to be working on the trap so he sees you set off the hologram," said Caitlin when they were stood in the bunker.

Cisco replied, "Ok. This time, I'm ready for him. I originally designed the force field to keep a speedster from getting out. But I've reversed it. Now it won't let one in."

Sophie raised her hand. "Can I try?"

Cisco nodded. Sophie took a run up and threw herself at the forcefield. Hitting it like a sack of potatoes, she smacked right into it and landed on the ground, groaning. "Somebody remind me why I thought that was a good idea," she grumbled.

Thea laughed and helped her up.

"Thea, if I'm ever going to do that again – stop me," said Sophie sincerely, rubbing her back and wincing.

"Will do," agreed Thea.

"At least we know it works," said Iris.

"Indeed." Cisco stepped into the forcefield. "As long as I'm inside, Wells won't be able to get near me."

"And I will be in the Cortex watching and recording everything that happens," said Caitlin.

"As soon as we get the confession we need to free our dad, I'm moving in," said Barry.

Sophie looked at them all seriously. "This is it you guys. Whatever happens, I love you all."

…..

Dr Wells casually entered the Cortex. "Have any of you seen Cisco recently?"

"Uh, he is in the bunker," replied Caitlin, her voice strained and slightly higher pitched than usual. "He thinks he finally figured out what went wrong at Christmas. You know, when we were trying to catch the Reverse-Flash?"

"Yes, I remember that night," he mused thoughtfully. "Well, did he say what he's found?"

"Nope, just that it was important."

"Maybe I'll wheel on down there, see what he's got." He turned his wheelchair and left the room.

"Here he comes," whispered Caitlin into the microphone urgently.

In the bunker, Cisco heard footsteps behind him but did not turn. "Hello, Cisco," said the man they had previously known as Dr Wells. "You've been busy. You really are incredibly clever, Cisco. I've always said it."

Cisco finally turned and jumped slightly when he discovered that Dr Wells was closer than he had realised. He backed into the forcefield. "You're him. The Reverse-Flash. Joe was right this whole time, wasn't he?"

Not-Dr Wells laughed. "Good ol' Joe. Joe West had his doubts all along. Even from that first night in the hospital, Joe knew something wasn't right. Cops as inconvenient now as they will be in a hundred years."

Sophie clutched Iris's hand. "Come on, Cisco," she muttered. "We need a confession."

"You killed Barry's mother. I want to know why," demanded Cisco.

"It was never my intention to kill Nora. But from my perspective, she was already dead. It just happened sooner than it was supposed to."

He spoke in a detached manner, as if none of what had happened really bothered him. It made Sophie's blood boil. "That's not an admission," she all but growled.

"You're not gonna get away with this," said Cisco as the man in the yellow suit paced around the barrier of the forcefield.

"I'm not gonna get away with it? Oh, you're smart. You're smart, Cisco. But you're not that smart."

Cisco decided to try a different tactic. "Obviously I'm not as smart as you, fooling us all for as long as you did."

The Reverse Flash shook his head. "There were times when I wanted to tell you. In many ways you have shown me what it is like to have a son." He lifted one hand and began to vibrate it. Then he stepped sideways, leaving a speed mirage of himself.

Cisco's eyes widened, horrified. "This is not part of the plan!" he whispered to himself. One of the mirages smashed part of the equipment and the force field vanished. "Guys!" shouted Cisco desperately.

Joe raced into the bunker, shortly followed by Barry and Iris. The Reverse Flash smiled maliciously like a cat when he saw them. "You really think you can defeat me?"

"Maybe not us, but she can." Iris pulled the gun out of her dad's holster and threw it behind her.

A split second later, Sophie was stood before Dr Wells pointing it at him. "You've monitored my progress, you know what I can do. Do you really think you can outrun me?"

The Reverse Flash froze, running through possible options in his head. Suddenly, the gun flew out of Sophie's hand, smacking him in the head and he fell to the ground.

…..

The Reverse Flash woke up in a cell in the Pipeline, his head ringing like he had ten hangovers and a migraine to boot. Outside his cell was Barry, staring at him angrily.

The Reverse Flash sat up and rested his elbow on his knee. "I suppose you're here to yell at me?" he asked tiredly.

"You deserve it," said Barry deadpan.

"And why is that?" he asked, standing up.

Barry slammed his hands against the cell door. "You ruined my life! All of our lives! We stood by you after everything that happened."

"I can see how this must be difficult for you to understand, but trust me, your lives now are so much better because of what I have done for you."

"You don't have to hide anymore. We know you're not Harrison Wells. Just tell us who you are."

"A confession will get you nowhere. You've seen who I am. You know what I can do."

"I'm not gonna fight you. But just tell the police what you did. Get my dad out of prison.

"I don't want to fight you. I need you. And I also did not anticipate, as difficult as the past how much I would come to love working with you. With all of you. And yet, that does not change what needs to happen."

"Must be pretty difficult for that to happen with you in this cell."

The Reverse Flash smiled. "Oh, we will face each other again. I promise you. Soon." He closed his eyes and leaned on the back wall of the cell with his hands clasped behind his head.

Barry stepped backwards and closed the door to the Pipeline.

As soon as he returned to the Cortex Sophie enveloped him in a hug. "You did good."

"Thank you."

"Now I think we should go and find out more from this Gideon character since Wells, I mean whatever he's calling himself now, isn't about to creepily sneak up on us," suggested Cisco.

Barry nodded and led Cisco and Sophie to the time vault. But when they entered, they couldn't believe what they saw.

"I guess I was wrong," said Cisco. "He can one-up us even when locked in a cell downstairs." The screen was filled with recordings and live feeds of everywhere they had ever been. Jitters, the Cortex, the West residence, even Barry's lab.

"It was all a set-up," gasped Barry. "We thought we set a trap for him, but he set a trap for us."

Sophie let out a strangled sob and ran back into the Cortex.

"What is it?" asked Joe. "What's wrong?"

Iris, Thea and Caitlin shared worried looks.

"He's been watching all of us," choked Sophie. "He has surveillance footage set up everywhere.  
Our homes, Bar's lab at the police station, Central City Picture News."

"Oh my God," breathed Joe.

 **AN - thanks to kingdom hearts slayer, both Guests and Stargirl720 for reviewing. Supergirl and the justice league will be featured in the sequel, as well as Sophie starting to get back to her old life. The title of the sequel has now changed to 'Family Matters' because I think I'm punny and Team Flash are kind of like a family. Thank you all for bearing with me since updates have been a little slow recently. It really does mean the world to me that you read and enjoy my work.**

 **Also, this story is not quite over yet so stay tuned...**


	29. Chapter 27

"He tricked us all five ways to Sunday," said Sophie shakily. "I don't know what to think." She sat down and looked at her shaking hands, feeling somewhere between giddy and hysterical. Somehow she felt herself laugh at the absurdity of it all. With this new development, she kind of felt like the Harrison Wells she knew was dead, since never again would she be able to talk to him as the man she had cared for so much.

"I'll go speak to him," said Barry decisively. "Tell him we know about this. It was obviously his grand plan anyway."

He walked towards the lab, followed by Cisco. "He was like a father to me," explained the scientist. "I want to know why he did all this." The two completed their walk in an angry silence, but after they opened the door they discovered his cell was empty. "How the heck did he do that?" asked Cisco. "It's still locked!" He ran his hand along the cool glass, as if an answer was inside it.

Then all of a sudden he wasn't there anymore. He was in the courtyard outside, but it didn't look quite right. Unfocussed, almost; if he tried to look at something too closely the details disintegrated. His body didn't quite feel solid either. Behind him, he could hear somebody muttering thoughtfully to themselves and followed the sound of the voice. It was the Reverse Flash, fiddling with a golden ring on his finger that was glinting in the sunlight.

"Through it maybe? Hey, Cisco, you alright man?"

Cisco massaged his temples. "Whoaaa, hat was trippy. One minute I was here – next I was outside. Dr Wells was there."

"Maybe he's there now," gasped Barry, zapping off to the Cortex. "We think Dr Wells might be outside!"

"We're on it," said Sophie, grabbing Thea's hand.

…..

In the dimly lit courtyard outside was the Reverse Flash, wearing the yellow suit that had come to be the symbol of so much hate.

"Dr Wells," called Sophie from behind him. "Or whatever your name is."

"Eobard. My name is Eobard Thawne," he replied as he turned to see Dash and Speedy, who was pointing her bow at him. "Oh how wonderful. You brought the cavalry."

"Cavalry my ass. We're the Wonder Girls," said Dash coldly.

"Another one of Cisco's names." Eobard laughed. "I don't want to fight you."

"Yeah, that's really the impression you gave when you escaped." Sophie threw herself at him and tackled him to the ground. But grabbed her by the waist and rolled over, throwing her down then running up the side of S.T.A.R. Labs. "Now that's just showing off," she grumbled. "Luckily I can show off too!"

Using her telekinesis, Sophie tried something new. She closed her eyes and imagined pushing down with all her might and when she opened them again she was in the air. She had levitated herself, she was literally flying. I have always wanted to do this, she thought to herself. Then she went higher so she was level with the Reverse Flash, and pulled him off the wall by his shoulders.

Thea had considered helping, but there was a lot of glass on the building and she didn't want to risk not having anywhere for her grappling hook to get hold of. But that wasn't a problem, Sophie had it more than covered. In a blur of purple and red lightning they plummeted downwards, each trying to throw the other off. Just as they landed, the Reverse Flash flew backwards into the wall and all the air was knocked out of him. Completely stunned, he tried to move away but he was held firmly in place by some sort of invisible field. Sophie did a perfect superhero landing while maintaining her telekinetic hold on him.

Thea took aim and fired an arrow into his arm. "Nanites, courtesy of Ray Palmer," she explained. "They're delivering a high frequency pulse that's disabling your speed. You're not gonna be running around for quite a while."

Dash released him, but sure enough he was unable to run anywhere.

…..

"You have questions," said Eobard tiredly from his cell once more. "Go ahead."

"Not sure where to start," shrugged Barry. "Thawne. That is your real name - Eobard Thawne."

"Since the day I was born."

"And when was that?"

"That's not what you want to know. Go ahead, Barry. Ask it."

"Why did you kill my mother?"

"Because I hate you. Not you now. You years from now.

"In the future."

"In _a_ future. Yes. We're enemies, rivals, opposites, reverses of one another."

"Why? Wh-why were we enemies?" asked Barry.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that neither of us was strong enough to defeat the other. Until I learned your secret. I learned your name. Barry Allen. And finally, I knew how to defeat you once and for all. Travel back in time, kill you as a child. Wipe you from the face of the earth. But then you, future you, that is, followed me back, and we fought. We both landed some pretty solid shots. And then you, future you, got your younger self out of there. I was so mad. But then I thought what if you were to suffer a tragedy? What if you were to suffer something so horrible, so traumatic that your child self could never recover? Then you would not become The Flash. And so I stabbed your mother in the heart, and I was free. Finally able to return to a future without The Flash, only to realize that in traveling back I'd lost my way home. Lost my ability to harness the speed force. And without it, I was stuck here. Stranded in this time, unable to return to my own. And the only way back was The Flash. But The Flash was gone, and so I created him."

"Why train me? Why help me save so many people? All those lives we saved, you didn't care about them at all!"

"I trained you because I needed you to get fast. Fast enough to rupture the space-time barrier and create a stable wormhole through which I could return home."

"Why would I ever do that?" asked Barry coldly.

"You want me out of your hair don't you?"

"That's not a good enough reason to set you loose on another time period."

Eobard laughed. "You wouldn't be setting me loose. You would be letting me have my life back." He stepped closer to the glass. "Don't you want to know how your sister comes into all of this?" he said quietly.

Barry's face remained impassive.

"I thought so. She has incredible abilities, speed like nobody ever before – even people like us – and a destiny you wouldn't believe. So many people here would kill to get hold of her, but in my time it is different. Sophie Allen is the Mayor of Central City; but Dash… Dash is the woman who saved the multiverse." He paused. "Send me home and I won't tell anybody her real identity."

Those few moments were the longest of Barry's life. "Alright."

 **AN - thank you to highlander348 for reviewing. There will be one more chapter and then the sequel. Thank you for reading!**


	30. Chapter 28

Barry clapped his hands to get the attention of the whole room. "Listen up people!" he announced. "We are going to build a time machine to help Eobard get home."

Cisco's jaw dropped. "A time machine?"

"Yes."

"We're going to build a time machine?"

"Yes."

"A machine to travel in time?"

"That is the general idea of one, yes."

"Does anybody else think that idea is mad trippy?" Nobody responded. "Ok, just me then."

Barry handed him some blueprints. "These are for the time machine. Eobard said all the pieces can be found in the work room."

Cisco looked at it and bit his lip to stop himself letting out an excited squeak. "Ok. I'm on it."

Barry turned to leave the room but Sophie stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Barry?"

He shrugged her off. "Not now."

"Yes, now." She positioned herself directly in front of him. "What did Eobard say to you? You haven't even looked at me since you entered this room!"

"Nothing."

"Bartholomew Henry Allen, I am your sister I know when you are hiding something. Tell me now or I will….I don't know what I'll do but you won't like it."

He sighed heavily, like the weight of several worlds was resting on his shoulders. "I'll…talk to you…later…I need to go see Eobard." He pushed past her and she let him.

"You literally just went to see Eobard!" she called after him. "He's not actually going to see Eobard, is he?"

Iris shook her head. "I don't know what he is going to do, though."

"He's obviously not ok," said Joe. "This has got to be hard on him. I mean, it's hard on all of us but even before this he admired Dr Wells."

Cisco poked his head back into the room. "Caitlin can I borrow you for a minute?"

"Of course." She followed him out into the corridor. "How can I help?"

"It makes me feel smarter if I have somebody to talk too, and I also need an extra pair of hands."

They entered the workroom where Cisco had spread piles of mechanical parts across the table.

"So, if Wells is as fast as Barry, what does he need a time machine for?"

"Apparently he lost his speed when he killed Barry's mom. He gets it back sometimes but only in spurts. He can't fully control it. So after Barry opens the wormhole, he's gonna need the ship to travel back to the future. He's been squirreling away the parts for yonks."

"Now we just need to put it together," said Caitlin, picking up a spanner and fiddling with it.

Cisco shook his head sadly. "Caitlin, I love you, but this is a time machine, not a bookcase from IKEA." He frowned at the blueprints and one of the components in front of him. "We got a problem. These tiles are made of tungsten."

"Well, tungsten does have the highest melting point of any other element," Caitlin pointed out.

"Yeah, but the dust it generates is flammable. The pressure exerted from the wormhole could cause a hole to be melted into the exterior and it…could explode." He winced.

"Any ideas?" asked Caitlin.

"Let me ask Dr Evil. Which used to be a name that made me smile." He rolled his eyes.

…..

Cisco entered the pipeline where Eobard was sat in his cell eating a Big Belly Burger. "Something on your mind, Cisco?"

"No." He pulled a face. "Yes. How did you fit your Reverse-Flash suit into that little ring? Is it some sort of compressed micro tech? Or actually, forget it. I don't care. Well, maybe a little but not enough to ask you about it." He held the blueprints up to the glass door along with a tungsten tile. "It's gonna blow."

Eobard shrugged and wiped his hands on a serviette. "Not if you cement the tiles with a cobalt resin. That'll prevent degradation in conditions of extreme heat."

"Okay. Fine. We'll try that." He rolled up the blueprints and turned to leave.

"That's it? That's all?" asked Eobard, mildly surprised. "I thought that of anyone, you'd be a little more understanding of my predicament. I don't belong here."

Cisco stopped, but didn't turn around. "Is that what you told yourself? When you tried to kill me?"

"What?"

"It was an alternate timeline. One that Barry reset. But I never forgot it. It just kept coming back to me. And I can still picture the way you looked at me when you called me a son and got ready to crush my heart with your fist. Who knows, maybe you would have done if Sophie hadn't come in."

At the sound of Sophie's name Eobard gasped slightly. "Cisco I'm sorry."

"Yeah. It sucked," he said with a bitter laugh.

"Not for trying to kill you, I'm sure I had a good reason. I'm sorry for the fact that you're able to retain traces of another timeline. You're able to see through the vibrations of the universe. It means I wasn't sure until just now."

"Sure of what?"

"The night the Particle Accelerator exploded you were affected too."

"What are you talking about? No. I wasn't," he said, still not turning around. It was easier to have this conversation when he could forget this villain had been the man who was like a father to him.

"Don't be afraid, Cisco. A great and honourable destiny awaits you now. I only hope that as you're living your great adventure, that you remember who gave you that life. And that it was given out of love."

Cisco re-entered the workroom and Caitlin could immediately tell something was wrong. "What happened?" she asked, walking over to give him a hug.

"Eobard tried to tell me that I'm a metahuman. How crazy is that?"

Caitlin bit her bottom lip. "Not that crazy, I'm afraid. It would explain your dreams and how you knew where the Reverse Flash was after touching the cell door."

"Gahhh. When will this day be over?"

"Hopefully soon," said Caitlin.

…..

There was a familiar shadow on the rooftop of Jitters when Iris arrived. "I thought I'd find you here," she called.

"Hey," greeted Barry. "I just had some thinking to do." He looked back out across the skyline.

Iris stood next to him and followed his gaze. "About what?"

"Our futures. Eobard said Sophie becomes 'the woman who saves the multiverse' whatever that is. That got me wondering about what is in store for the rest of us and if we could ever have a normal life."

"Barry," said Iris. "You have superpowers. Why on earth would you want a normal life if you have the opportunity to help people? To be a symbol of hope and justice."

He smiled and let out a slow breath. "Well, when you put it like that…"

"There is evil in the world, but there is also good. Everything you do at S.T.A.R. Labs, saving lives, is a pure good. There will be hard times ahead but that doesn't cancel out everything you have done and will do."

"Thank you, Iris," said Barry sincerely.

"My pleasure. Now, shall we get back to S.T.A.R. Labs?"

…..

"So how does this work? Your grand plan?" asked Barry once they were all assembled in the pipeline.

"Well, it's really not that grand at all, Barry. In fact, it's rather simple. We use the Particle Accelerator," explained Eobard.

"The Particle Accelerator," echoed Cisco. "The last time that happened, you caused an explosion that hurt a lot of people."

"This time, the accelerator will operate exactly the way it was designed to," said Eobard. "Except, instead of two particles moving in opposite directions, colliding at the speed of light in the inner ring, we're only going to inject one particle into the accelerator."

"And I'm what it collides with," said Barry.

"Come again?" asked Joe worriedly.

"And if you can go fast enough, Barry, if you can hit that particle with enough speed, you will punch a hole right though the fabric of reality. And you will create a portal connecting this time to infinite times. A wormhole. Through which one might travel back to the past, say, to the night your mother died or forward to the future, to, say, my time."

"You said if I run fast enough," said Barry quietly. What happens if I don't?"

"If you don't achieve the desired velocity, Barry, you'll die."

"Well that's just not what you want to hear," muttered Cisco. Then, at normal volume, "According to Wells' calculations, Barry super-speeds inside the accelerator ring. Once he reaches optimum speed, we then launch a hydrogen proton into the accelerator. Then when the collision happens, a wormhole forms, opening a gateway into time itself. It's at that moment I plan on shouting something along the lines of 'Eureka' or possibly 'Excelsior, 'I'm uncommitted."

"What do you think?" Barry asked Joe.

"I mean, on the one hand, it does make a kind of sense. In a weird sciency way. On the other hand, why? Why, why would you ever consider doing this?" asked Joe desperately.

Sophie folded her arms and raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, why Barry?"

"I…uh…" He looked to Iris for help who waved one hand towards him in a 'it's your call' gesture. "Eobard threatened you. He said he'd mess up your future if I didn't help him."

Sophie nodded slowly. "So that's why you're acting all weird and not letting me help. Thea and I have been going crazy not having anything to do while y'all were fretting over this time machine business. Haven't we, Thea?"

Thea nodded solemnly. "We have. You could've at least given us something to go on!"

"I'm so sorry," said Barry.

"It's ok. Save the world or whatever first, then I'll yell at you later," shrugged Sophie.

"Anyway," said Caitlin with forced cheerfulness. "For this to actually work, how fast would Barry have to go?"

"By my estimates, Mach Two at a minimum," explained Cisco.

"I've never gone that fast," worried Barry.

"So what happens if Barry doesn't reach that speed?" Cisco asked Eobard. "I mean, I'm imagining a bug hitting a windshield. How far off am I?"

"Not very far, I'm afraid," apologised Eobard.

"Let me worry about how fast I have to go," said Barry. He got into position in the ring of the accelerator and took a few deep breaths. "Ready?" he called up to his friends.

Caitlin and Cisco had gone into the cortex to monitor his speed on the screens, Eobard was seated in his time machine and Joe, Iris, Sophie and Thea were stood above the track watching him.

"Ready," replied Cisco through the intercom.

Barry set off, pushing himself to new limits. He used reserves of strength and speed he didn't even know he had, the lightning almost becoming a part of his soul. Thoughts of his friends and family were his companions as he ran, helping him to focus on what he had to do.

"He's not running fast enough!" fretted Caitlin over the intercom. Iris buried her face in her dad's chest, Thea shared a look with Joe and Sophie nervously chewed her thumbnail with wide eyes. "He's slowing down!"

"When do we release the particle?" asked Cisco.

"Not until he reaches Mach 2!" shouted Eobard.

"That might not happen!" cried Cisco.

"He's never gone that fast, it might be physically impossible!" said Caitlin frantically.

Sophie watched the lightning generated by her brother and had another really bad idea. "Oh, for Pete's sake!" she yelled and leapt down into the ring.

"NO!" thundered Eobard, but it was too late. Joe let out a strangled cry and Thea closed her eyes.

Sophie gained momentum and grabbed her brother's hand, tugging him with her as she broke Mach 2.

"It's now or never," said Cisco quietly as he pressed the button to release the hydrogen particle.

There was an almighty flash of light as a crack opened up in front of them. Eobard pressed some gears in his time machine and was gone before any of them had registered what had happened. One minute later the crack vanished as quickly as it had come.

"Well that was anticlimactic," commented Cisco.

Sophie panted and looked at her brother with a triumphant grin on her face. "We actually did it! If I wasn't so exhausted I would do a victory dance."

Cisco and Caitlin ran down to the accelerator, meeting Joe, Thea and Iris on the way, and everybody hugged tearfully.

"So what happens now?" asked Barry.

"I don't know about you guys, but I really need a nap," announced Sophie.

 **AN - here it is, the final chapter. Over the course of this story I have been overwhelmed by the positive responses from all of you, so thank you so much. You are all awesome! The sequel will be up soon and I have the first 5 chapters planned out, so don't forget to keep an eye out for 'Family Matters'.**

 **Thank you!**

 **Beth**


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